Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s common-law wife, Honeylet Avanceña, has reportedly been barred from visiting the former president at the detention facility of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
Speaking in a published interview by Boldyak TV on Friday, Avanceña revealed that her visitation rights to the former president have allegedly been suspended by FPRRD’s defense team for alleged unauthorized discussion of the ICC case against the former president.
“Nung pagbisita ko ng hapon na yun, 5 minutes bago matapos ang visitation time namin, sinabihan ako nung isa doon, sabi niya nung July 19 daw nung phone conversation namin meron daw akong sinabi about the case. Sabi ko I don’t know anything about the case,” she said.
Avanceña even called out lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, lead counsel of FPRRD, reminded him that she did not ask a single paper from him concerning the case.
“You know that Mr. Kaufman. I have not asked a single paper from you on whatever case that you are doing, so I cannot talk about the case. Also 5 minutes bago matapos sinabihan na lang ako na isu-suspend daw ako, sabi pa nga ni FPRRD doon sa lalaki na nagsabi, sabi niya “you cannot do that”, kasi he is expecting me, he knows that this is my schedule to visit him,” she said.
Avanceña, however, did not mention how long her suspension will be.
Meanwhile, Kaufman clarified that there are “no internal disagreements” within the defense team amid allegations made by Avanceña.
“There are absolutely no internal disagreements among the persons responsible for handling the former president’s defense. The simple fact of the matter is that the Vice President, as a lawyer herself, is fully qualified to judge the quality of my engagement with and work for the former president,” he said.
Former presidential spokesperson lawyer Harry Roque is being dragged into the issue over the termination of the visitation rights of Avanceña.
In an interview on Friday, Kaufman called Roque an “irrelevancy” and said his only regret is the time wasted dealing with Roque’s alleged “comical intrigues.”
“What? Why me? Why am I the subject—again—of Mr. Nicholas Kaufman’s latest rant?… Is this a Kaufman-style of blame game?” Roque stated.
Roque also criticized Kaufman’s alleged avoidance of the real issue, which is the suspension of Avanceña’s visitation rights with FPRRD.
Despite this, Roque insisted on his prayers for the success of Kaufman’s legal team.
“Bring former President Duterte home alive. The Filipino people are watching and waiting,” he said.
