DAVAO CITY – “Planning.”
This was presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte’s answer when asked if he had plans of marrying his common-law-wife Honeylet Avanceña.
Duterte had just officiated the mass wedding of 99 couples in Barangay Tigatto here on Saturday afternoon when the Philippine Daily Inquirer asked the question. He first hesitated to give a reply. But when pressed, he said: “Let’s just say ‘planning.’”
Duterte has an 11-year old daughter, Veronica, with Honeylet.
Honeylet, in an earlier interview, said “God willing,” when asked if the 70-year old Davao City mayor had proposed to her.
Duterte is separated from his wife Elizabeth Zimmerman, with whom he has three children– former Davao City mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio, vice mayor Paulo Duterte and Sebastian.
Elizabeth, in 1998, filed a petition in court to nullify her marriage with Duterte. It was granted two years later.
At the mass wedding Saturday, Duterte wished the newly wed couples “a thousand years of happy married life.”
He also offered hotel accommodations to a number of couples of who came from the remote village of Fatima in Paquibato District.
“I know that if you return to Fatima after the ceremony, you will arrive there at 11 p.m.,” he said.
The mayor also gave cash gifts and grocery items to the couples. SFM
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