VICE PRESIDENT Sara Duterte, after attending her father’s ICC pre-trial hearing, conveyed his message to supporters: ‘Relax lang, may hangganan ang lahat (Just relax. Everything has its limits. A day of reckoning will come.’
She also revealed he repeatedly asked her to “Do not leave the country.”
“We will reach that point. But for now, just give me your message for them,” Sara said to their family’s supporters, quoting her father with whom she was allowed to meet only after the pre-trial meeting on March 14.
The vice president also revealed how her father repeatedly asked her to remain in the Philippines.
“When we talked, as a request, he asked me to go home,” she told reporters. “He repeatedly said, ‘Do not leave the Philippines. Do not leave the country.'”
The vice president attended the former president’s initial appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Friday, March 14, 2025, at 2 p.m. (9 p.m. Manila time).
In her message before a largely Filipino crowd, the vice president took a swipe at the current administration when asked by a member of the crowd how she felt about being betrayed.
“The best thing we can do is move forward. We can no longer go back and withdraw our vote. But moving forward… what I am always saying is, ‘Do not sell your vote,” she said.
“Even if I wanted us to have a time machine, I just think always about what I went through. But I am the Vice President. That is their biggest problem now because they have to remove me from my post so they can fulfill their wish to stay in power,” she added.
The vice president also addressed a question about her political plans for 2028, to which she said, “Do we still have a country by 2028?”
“The way we are moving now is we are sinking further and further. But just trust God because you will see that each thing has a purpose,” she said.
She also directed a message to Filipinos back home, urging them not to be distracted by the ICC proceedings, and look at the issues in the country.
“The problem in the country isn’t the Dutertes,” she said.
The vice president left the country on Wednesday morning and headed for the Netherlands, a day after her father was arrested for alleged crimes against humanity by virtue of a warrant issued by the ICC. The former president was brought to a detention center in The Hague.
The ICC has been investigating the former president and other top officials of his administration for crimes against humanity over the alleged systematic drug war deaths in police operations, particulary the murder of 43 individuals believed to be criminals by the Davao Death Squad between 2011-2016 and members of the police and non-police actors between 2016-2019.
