Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman-Duterte (born April 14, 1948) is the former wife of

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assum ...

, the 16th

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-ch ...

, and the mother of incumbent

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Sara Duterte.

Early life

Zimmerman was born on in

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao, is a City of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the List of Philippine cities and municipalities ...

. Her birth certificate erroneously cites August 14 as her birthdate, resulting from a mistake in the late registration of her birth. Her parents are Godofredo Zimmerman from Hilongos, Leyte and Purisima Abellana from Tuburan, Cebu. After finishing her college degree at the Ateneo de Davao, she subsequently worked as a flight stewardess for

Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank, PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the oldest operating commercial airline in Asia. Philippine ...

. She subsequently held a teaching job at the Philippine Women's College upon her marriage to Duterte.

Jewish ethnicity

Rodrigo Duterte and the Zimmerman family's oral history claim that she is of patrilineal Jewish descent, with her father having fled to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. However, the family's DNA result showed a non-Jewish ethnicity.

Politics

Zimmerman ran for councilor of Davao City in 2001 but lost. She joined the ''Biyaheng DU30'' bus caravan which went around the

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino language, Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, a ...

and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

, in support of her former husband's presidential bid in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. In March 2019, Zimmerman scolded her daughter, Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, for "bullying" senatorial candidates under the Otso Diretso opposition slate, telling her that "Everyone knows you are a child of Rodrigo, but they should also know that you are a child of Elizabeth."

Personal life

In 1973, Zimmerman married future Davao City mayor and

Philippine president The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in- ...

, who was then a new lawyer. The couple has three children, namely Paolo ("Pulong"), Sara ("Inday Sara") and Sebastian ("Baste"). Zimmerman separated from Duterte in 1998 after she caught him in adultery. She filed for a civil

annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning alm ...

and lived with her brother in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

for a few months, occasionally visiting Davao City since her children were still studying there. Duterte did not contest the annulment, which was granted by a

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig (), is a highly-urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people. It is located along the eastern border of Metro Mani ...

court in 2000. After the annulment, Zimmerman maintained a close friendship with her former husband, while Sara stayed with her. She chose to continue using "Duterte" as her surname despite the annulment, saying that her church marriage with Duterte has never been declared null by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. She has eleven grandchildren: five from Paolo, three from Sara, and three from Baste. She also has two great-grandchildren. In August 2015, Zimmerman was diagnosed with stage 3

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

, but was declared fully recovered in October 2016. Her recovery then led to her becoming a breast cancer advocate. After Rodrigo Duterte's arrest on March 11, 2025, her daughter

Sara claimed that her mother told her to prepare for the possibility that she will be arrested next. By late March, Zimmerman arrived at

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, where Duterte is currently being detained.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Elizabeth 1948 births Living people Ateneo de Davao University alumni Duterte family Filipino people of German descent Filipino people of American descent Filipino Roman Catholics Flight attendants People from Davao City Spouses of presidents of the Philippines Visayan people