Duterte ‘falls ill’, skips gala dinner for Apec chiefs

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Duterte was ill and opted to have Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay attend on his behalf the dinner hosted by Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
Practically all the leaders of Apec member states, with the exception of those who had sent representatives because of troubles at home, such as South Korea and Thailand, were in attendance at the dinner. They included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Xi Jinping of China.
Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau of Canada and Shinzo Abe of Japan were also present.
The Apec leaders toasted one another with champagne and watched cultural presentations.
The traditional dinner is typically seen as an opportunity for Apec leaders to hold informal talks with one another in the absence of time for formal bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the main summit.
Andanar said Kuczynski had been told beforehand that Duterte would not be able to make it to the dinner.
The two leaders had a prolonged conversation earlier in the day during the official welcome ceremony for the arriving heads of state just before the formal opening of the annual trade gathering of Pacific Rim economies.
In the morning, Duterte had bilateral discussions with Xi and Putin.