Sara told: No more public interviews about visits to father in The Hague
Visitors of former President Rodrigo Duterte are now prohibited from publicly revealing their discussions with him or other occurrences during their scheduled visits to the International Criminal Court (ICC) detention center in The Hague, according to his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.
Speaking in at The Hague on Monday (Netherlands time), the Vice President said they were reminded by officials at the ICC detention unit about regulations that must be followed during visits to detainees.
“So from now on, we can no longer discuss what happened inside and whatever we talked about inside [the detention center],” Sara said in an interview led by one of their closest allies, former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
“I can only say that President Duterte is still alive. That’s all,” she added. “We are not allowed to give updates.”
In her visit to her father on Aug. 27, she was joined by all her siblings—Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, acting Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte and their youngest sister Veronica Duterte—upon the former president’s request.
Father’s request
According to Rodrigo, he wanted to see all of them together because he had something to tell them. Sara talked about their visit afterward in an earlier interview, saying her father’s foot had turned gray and that he was not allowed to have snacks from the vending machine at the detention center because his blood sugar level was high.
She also said their discussion was mostly about their personal lives. Sara clarified, in response to a question, that they did not talk about the 2028 elections in which she is widely speculated to run for president.
Fourth time
This was the Vice President’s fourth time to fly to the Netherlands this year after her father was arrested in Manila on Mar. 11 and transferred to The Hague to stand trial before the ICC over the thousands of killings under his drug war.
After each visit to her father, Sara would give updates about him through interviews.
The former president will face the international tribunal again on Sept. 23 for the confirmation of charges against him. Sara said that she and other relatives would attend the proceedings.
“We are still arranging our schedule. So we still don’t know who will fly [to The Hague] on Sept. 23 for the confirmation of charges,” she said. “But our trip is already set because as I told them, there is a need for us to visit him whenever allowed by the detention unit.”
