Vice President Sara Duterte expressed gratitude to the International Criminal Court (ICC) detention unit for extending the family’s visitation days for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, at the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, Netherlands. She also shared updates on his condition during their recent visit.
Speaking to supporters outside the detention facility on Tuesday, June 3, she revealed that the ICC had approved their request to extend visitation, allowing them to see Duterte on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
“So, we are thankful for the ICC detention unit because they approved our request to increase the number of days that we can visit former president Rodrigo Duterte. As far as I remember, it is allowed to visit on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Thank you for that,” she said in Filipino.
The Vice President, accompanied by her mother and Duterte’s ex-wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman, visited the former president for an hour and a half on Tuesday, their second within the week.
Following their return to the Philippines, her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, along with his family and Honeylet Avanceña, Duterte’s common-law wife, are the next in line for visitation.
The Duterte family earlier decided that at least one relative or kin of the former chief executive would remain in The Hague to look after his needs.
The Vice President shared that she also asked her father about the food in the detention facility, but he dismissed the need to worry about his food.
“He said, update me about the case. So, we updated him according to what is allowed to us as non-lawyers to tell him,” she added.
Only family members and lawyers are allowed to visit the elder Duterte in detention.
She also updated her father about their family, specifically about her brother Paolo and youngest sister, Veronica or Kitty.
“He’s proud of it,” she cited her father’s reaction to Kitty’s billboard ad in Manila.
The former chief executive didn’t miss the chance to tease his ex-wife. “Tinanong n’ya mama ko kung kilala mo si Honeylet,” Vice President Duterte recalled, but her mom answered in the negative.
She was also worried if her father was getting enough rest and sleep, so she inquired about him possibly suffering from insomnia.
“Wala akong insomnia,” he assured her. “Minsan lang di ako makatulog dahil sa kakaisip sa nanay mo.”
Zimmerman sought the nullification of her marriage from the elder Duterte in 1998 and has remained civil with him since then. They share three children—Paolo, Sara, and Sebastian. (Raymund Antonio)
