World leaders and senior business figures are gathering in the Vietnamese city of Danang this week for the annual 21-member APEC summit.
/ AFP PHOTO / APEC 2017 National Committee / Handout
(Eagle News) — Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala dinner for world leaders in President Rodrigo Duterte’s place on Friday night, Nov. 10, 2017.
Duterte skipped the dinner because he was attending to urgent matters regarding the final preparations for the ASEAN Summit hosting of the Philippines, and getting information and coordinating with his officials in Manila regarding the recovery of Vietnamese captives of the terrorist group, the Abu Sayyaf.
He thus failed to be in the photo of APEC leaders who came to the gala dinner.
Cayetano was accompanied by his wife, Taguig City mayor Lani Cayetano.
Philippine troops on Friday rescued three Vietnamese sailors abducted by a group of Islamist militants nine months ago in dangerous southern waters near the Malaysian border, an army spokeswoman said.
Seventeen Vietnamese sailors were taken captive in the south of the Philippines when pro-Islamic State militants attacked commercial ships in the Sulu and Celebes seas, generating millions of dollars from ransom payments.
Four Vietnamese sailors were found on a remote island in Tawi-tawi, but one was already dead from illness, Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay told reporters. She said Philippines marines were pursuing a small group of militants who had fled and abandoned the captives.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told reporters the President had to coordinate and get information from Vietnam on the operation to rescue the Vietnamese kidnap victims of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, which was the main reason he couldn’t attend the APEC gala dinner that Friday night.
This was the second time that President Duterte had failed to show up in the APEC gala dinner. Last year, in Lima, Peru, the Philippine leader also skipped the APEC gala dinner which US President Barack Obama attended.
His officials said that he was not feeling well then. (with a report from Reuters)
