An emotional Honeylet Avanceña faced the Filipino audience who attended the community meeting in Japan, recalling her experiences as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in the United States.
The President, along with the other members of Duterte Administration, is in Japan for a four-day working visit. This includes a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
Cielito “Honeylet†Avanceña is Duterte’s common law wife of 20 years after the President’s annulment in 1998 with Elizabeth Zimmerman, mother of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara and Congressman-elect Paolo and Baste Duterte.
The couple met when Avanceña won as a first runner-up in Mutya ng Dabaw 1988.
Avanceña spent four years working as a nurse in United States until 2004 when her husband asked her to return to Davao after giving birth to Veronica “Kitty” Duterte.
In her speech, Avanceña acknowledged all OFWs strength and dedication in order to provide for their family. She also called them the modern “heroes” of this generation.
They were not legally married however, she said that Duterte was his first serious relationship.
Despite being a self-confessed womanizer, Duterte introduced her wife to the audience as his “one and only.”
During the President’s speech, he said that there might be “no guarantees” with her title but it is Honeylet’s “destiny to become the first lady.”
It is the first time President Rodrigo Duterte called her wife as the “First Lady” of the Philippines. (with reports from Bombo Reymund Tinaza)
