MANILA – The actress-sister of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, who is also known as the “queen of talk shows,” wants her marriage to a popular pro basketball player annulled, according to her lawyers.
Her lawyers disclosed Kris Aquino, the youngest of four children of the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino, instructed them to file an annulment suit before she left with her two children for a holiday in the US last week.
Before her brother was sworn into office as the country’s 15th president on June 30, Kris created a stir when she told a TV interview that she considers her marriage to James Yap over.
Yap is an equally popular player for a team now playing in the championship round of the Philippine Basketball Association, Asia’s play-for-pay league.
The couple was married in a civil ceremony officiated by a close family friend, former mayor (now congressman) Feliciano Belmonte of suburban Quezon City, in 2005.
Their marriage license was obtained in suburban Makati City, Metro Manila under then mayor (now vice president) Jejomar Binay, another close family friend.
Kris lawyers said that before she left for the US with her two children and their nannies, she told them to petition the court to annual her marriage, instead of legal separation.
If granted, the lawyers explained that Kris or Yap could remarry as compared to a legal separation which prevents them from doing so under Philippine laws.
But the lawyers cited Kris as saying that in moving for an annulment, “there is no third party involved.”
The lawyers also refused to confirm whether the couple had signed a pre-nuptial agreement, saying it was a “private matter.”
Significantly, the lawyers of Kris are connected with a law firm founded by Paquito Ochoa, Aquino’s executive secretary, and whose partners include the wife of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Junior, the only son and namesake of the late strongman.
In a separate interview, Yap said he is determined to save his marriage as he emphasized: “I won’t give up until I have done my best and I have done everything that I possibly could.”
But confidantes of the couple, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that from the looks of it, Kris is determined to have their marriage annulled.
Kris and her children, who are reportedly in Florida, are to return to the Philippines before July 26 when Aquino is to deliver his first state-of-the-nation address before a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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