Vice President Sara Duterte recently revealed why members of the Duterte political clan never take plane rides together and why Filipinos should not expect to see them traveling as a family.
While speaking to reporters at Villamor Air Base in Pasay ahead of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s departure for the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Vice President was asked why she and her father did not return from Hong Kong together.
Although the former president arrived in Manila on the morning of Tuesday, March 11, Sara arrived only in the afternoon “following a personal trip to Hong Kong last weekend,” according to the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
Duterte returned to the Philippines with his partner Honeylet and their daughter Veronica, along with former government officials.
“If you observed from even before, we don’t ride planes together. Them as a married couple, or us as father and children, we don’t ride planes together. Because if the plane goes down, we will all die,” Sara said in Filipino.
“Which is also why I can’t tell them that I will join that airplane,” she added, referring to the chartered flight meant to take the former president to The Hague, Netherlands.
The flights of the Dutertes to The Hague recently became the most tracked jets on the live flight tracking website flightradar24.com after news broke that the former president was arrested on allegations of crimes against humanity by the ICC.
VP Sara’s elder brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, also took a separate flight to the Netherlands on Wednesday.