Honeylet Avanceña, Sara & Kitty Duterte Visit FPRRD Inside the ICC Detention Facility
KITTY DUTERTE – The daughter of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte spoke about their recent visit to him inside the detention facility of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte immediately flew to The Hague to support former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte after he was arrested in Manila last March 11 and flown to the Netherlands. His custody was transferred to the ICC which released an arrest warrant against him.
According to Vice Pres. Duterte, she will set the legal team of former Pres. Duterte for his ICC trial before she will return to the country. She revealed that the former President wants her to immediately go back to the Philippines.
Duterte’s legal team is led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. According to him, the process may not reach the confirmation of charges phase if their jurisdictional argument will work. Thus, Duterte’s lawyer is really hoping to convince the judges that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
However, previously, the ICC already stressed that there were alleged crimes during the years when PH was still under the Rome Statute. Another ICC-accredited lawyer also tagged Duterte’s lead counsel’s argument to have “little weight”.
According to Vice Pres. Sara Duterte, she now has a renewed father-daughter relationship with former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and she thanks Pres. Bongbong Marcos for it. The Vice President stressed that she and her father only talks about family during her visits as the legal matters are discussed between him and his lawyers.
Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña, Duterte’s common-law wife, and his youngest daughter, Kitty Duterte, arrived in The Hague a few days before the 80th birthday of the former President. Based on a report on GMA News, Sara, Kitty, and Honeylet recently visited FPRRD together.
After their visit, Kitty Duterte clarified why she and Honeylet Avanceña were spotted running towards the detention facility when they arrived. Vice Pres. Sara Duterte arrived ahead of them. According to Duterte’s youngest daughter, they ran so they could enter the facility on time and maximum their visit to her father.
Kitty Duterte also revealed that they were only talking about the positive things to former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Based on the report, they assured him that they are okay and they talk about the things that would give him strength.
“He is happy to hear that we are all doing well, that we are all okay, that we are continuing to pray for him… We are telling him things that will uplift his spirit,” Kitty said.
Honeylet Avanceña and Kitty Duterte are expected to return to the Philippines soon as Duterte’s common-law wife has a business to manage while their daughter has to attend to her studies.
The Duterte family is grateful for the outpouring of support and prayers for them. However, during Duterte’s birthday, some Filipinos in Qatar were arrested for public demonstrations of their support to the former President. Malacañang vowed to help the arrested Duterte supporters in Qatar.