Duterte fails to attend ASEAN-UN Summit

November 14, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte failed to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and United Nations Summit on Monday night due to the conflict on his schedules, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano represented Duterte in the ASEAN-UN meeting which took place before 11pm.

"As we all know from yesterday's activities, President Duterte had a full schedule last night," he said, citing his bilateral meetings with his counterparts.

On Monday night, Duterte had bilateral meetings with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, India and Russia.

"The president's meetings went beyond schedule and, to avoid further delay, it was decided that Secretary Cayetano would attend the ASEAN-UN Summit on behalf of PRRD (Duterte) while the Chief Executive was conducting meetings with other leaders," Roque said.

It could be recalled that Duterte uttered expletives against then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for raising concern over the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

He even threatened that the Philippines would withdraw its membership from the UN.

In December last year, Ban was replaced by Portuguese Antonio Guterres. Celerina Monte/DMS