MANILA: Impeached Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has returned home after nearly a month at her father’s side in The Hague, where he is facing a charge of crimes against humanity, her communications team said on Monday (Apr 7).
“My job here is done,” she told reporters ahead of her departure, saying former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team was now set and she had filed the “last document” needed at the International Criminal Court.
The vice president added the family no longer intends to seek financial aid to pay for her father’s defence. “If we need to (sell) things to support our financial needs, we will do that,” she said.
Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Mar 11 and whisked away the same day to the Netherlands-based tribunal to face charges tied to his drug war, in which thousands of mostly poor men were killed.
Daughter Sara followed him to The Hague immediately after and had been coordinating his legal affairs and acting as his mouthpiece, holding a number of press conferences outside the court building.
She landed at Manila’s international airport on Sunday night, according to her communications team.
The vice president returns as her family’s PDP Laban party is lagging in polls ahead of May mid-term elections that will determine 12 Senate seats and thousands of smaller positions across the archipelago nation of 117 million.
