Rody to spend V-Day with Honeylet, daughter

MANILA, Philippines - His first Valentine’s Day today as the country’s Chief Executive will be spent with partner Honeylet Avancena and daughter Veronica or Kitty.

President Duterte is also expected to send Elizabeth Zimmerman, his former wife, flowers and gifts – something he has done unfailingly even after they decided to go their separate ways.

Zimmerman is the mother of his children – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Vice Mayor Paolo and Sebastian.

The President often works in Manila on weekdays and goes home to Davao City on weekends. But he opted to extend his stay in Mindanao this week, after visiting the earthquake struck Surigao City on Sunday.

Many knew that George Canseco’s “Ikaw” is his favorite song, but he also often requests pianist Alfonso Fernandez to play for him John Denver’s “Seasons of the Heart.”

Duterte would sing with feeling the lines: “Love is why I came here in the first place/ Love is now the reason I must go/ Love is all I ever hoped to find here/ Love is still the only dream I know/ True love is still the only dream I know...”

Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go said the President will spend Valentine’s Day in the mountains in Barangay Carmen in Davao with his family.

But today, he added, would just be another working day, pointing to the President’s busy schedule, which includes monitoring the situation in Surigao.

Duterte flew to the city on Sunday to personally assess the damage brought by the earthquake and led the giving of relief goods to victims. He also ordered the speedy rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure, including the airport runway and some bridges, and for the Department of Energy to restore electricity in affected areas. 

He also made sure that residents would have access to clean potable water.

Aside from official meetings and functions, the President also stood as sponsor to the wedding of his aide-de-camp Police Senior Insp. Romea Alnieza Kinang at the Astoria Regency Hotel in Zamboanga City. Kinang married Police Senior Insp. Arvin Jusmillo in a Muslim rite Sunday evening.

Jusmillo proposed to Kinang while she was on duty as aide of the President in an event in Butuan City last October.

The President then promised the couple he would stand as their sponsor when they would finally decide to tie the knot.