Stalwarts of the Duterte administration joined Vice President Sara Duterte in a vigil at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) supposedly intended to ensure the well-being of detained Office of the Vice President chief of staff Zuleika Lopez.
The presence of the Vice President and her father’s two closest officials, Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go has also caused a crowd of Duterte supporters to launch a protest action outside the hospital in North Avenue, Quezon City.
A similar activity is also being held at Rizal Park in Davao City, where protesters wore black shirts to dramatize their disapproval for the current administration.
However, after spending most of the weekend at Lopez’s side, Duterte said would be leaving the hospital to go home, entrusting her chief of staff’s care to Dela Rosa and Go.
In an interview on Sunday, the Vice President said that Lopez finally allowed her to leave her bedside after much coaxing.
“I pleaded with her to let me go home so I could see my kids. Initially, she refused… then, she cried. I left her alone for a while, then, I asked her again,” she said in Filipino.
Duterte said her chief of staff finally agreed to let her go after being assured that Dela Rosa and Go would stay to guard her.
However, she was expected to return Sunday evening.
During Duterte’s absence, presidential sister Sen. Imee Marcos came to the VMMC to visit Lopez.
Marcos, who arrived around 2 p.m. Sunday via helicopter, was met by fellow Senator Dela Rosa but did not make a statement to the press.
As this developed, fugitive former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque virtually joined Duterte supporters in a four-hour livestream on Saturday night as other supporters gathered outside the VMMC.
The online event was intended to protest the House order to transfer Lopez to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Roque decried the supposedly unjust treatment afforded to Lopez, hinting her detention would spark an attempt to unseat the current administration.
“We have seen two presidents ousted. Our presence here is the proof that Filipinos will not consent to any dictatorship. This is evidence that the oppressive Congress is unacceptable,” he said online.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sebastian Baste Duterte during his Sunday vlog lambasted House leaders for “targeting” his sister.
“It’s obvious they are targeting my sister which makes me wonder Why? Why are they specifically focusing on the VP? What do they [congressmen] stand to gain form all this?” Duterte said.
