A Metro Manila lower court has allowed child visitation rights to the estranged husband of the youngest sister of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, who is an actress and also known as the “queen of talk shows.”
In an agreement forged between the two contending parties, the Regional Trial Court of suburban Makati City, Metro Manila granted the petition of athlete James Yap for a three-day a week right to visit his son with Kris, James Junior, 5.
But the court did not grant Yap’s request to bring his son to visit his grandparents in Negros Occidental province in the Visayas in Central Philippines.
Yap is an equally popular professional athlete who just won the coveted Most Valuable Player award in the just concluded championships of the Philippine Basketball Association, considered as Asia’s first pay-for-pay league.
The couple is locked in a bitter and much-publicized feud for the past few months, with Kris declaring in public that she would seek an annulment of their stormy and tempestuous five-year marriage.
Their disagreement came to a head when Yap claimed that he had not seen his son for the past two weeks since his arrival with Kris and older brother and their “yayas” (maids) from a three-week vacation in the US.
President Aquino refused to be dragged into the controversy, saying that whatever he might say would be interpreted as influencing the court which already has jurisdiction over the case.
“As the president, I cannot do that because I am banned from doing so under the law,” said Aquino, who at 50 years old, is the only bachelor to become the Philippines head of state.
Yap is to fly to the US for a two-week vacation sometime in September but said he would try to find time to visit his son before his departure.
In an interview with reporters, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, who represents Yap, disclosed that Kris agreed to allow Yap to have their son on Wednesdays from 2 pm to 8 pm., and overnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Kapunan also disclosed that the court scheduled the hearing of the annulment case filed by Kris on August 26. Under the Family Code, court hearings of such cases are not open to the public.
In a separate interview, Kris said the welfare of their son was their “utmost priority” and that she and Yap would do everything to make things better for him.
A source close to the estranged couple, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that unlike in their past quarrels, no “third party” was involved when Kris decided to file the annulment case in court.
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