Duterte yearns for Davao City after hectic ASEAN schedule

A grueling schedule hosting the 2017 ASEAN Summit had President Rodrigo Duterte pining for his hometown Davao City, referring to it while singing as the “city by the sea.”

At a press conference after turning over the ASEAN chairmanship to Singapore on Tuesday night, the 72-year-old Duterte asked the media for a few moments to catch his breath.

“Just allow me a moment to catch up with my breathe. May shortage ako ng tulog, mahirap pag matanda na,” he said before taking a deep breath.

Before officially opening the summit with a gala dinner on Sunday, Duterte had just come from the APEC Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, where he spent four days meeting with other world leaders.

At the ASEAN Summit, Duterte presided over 13 meetings and events, and hosted eight bilateral meetings, including one with US President Donald Trump.

“Everyone participating there wants a bilateral meeting, I could not even keep up with the schedule. We sleep [at] 2, 3 [in the morning] and I wake up 6, 7 [in the morning] because there are so many bilaterals,” he said.

Excluding the time he needed to wake up and return to Malacañang, the President clocked in a total of 32 hours in his official ASEAN schedule starting with the gala dinner at 7 p.m. on Sunday and ending with a bilateral meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern on Tuesday night.

The Philippines, in hosting the ASEAN Summit, hopes to reap dividends in increased trade and investments, food security, maritime cooperation, and protection of migrant workers through a signed treaty on migrant workers’ rights, according to presidential spokesperon Harry Roque Jr.

But it was not only Duterte who was exhausted from the three-day summit.

Mediamen were seen slumped on the floor while waiting for last night’s press conference to start. A Palace source said a staff of the Malacañang Accreditation and Relations Office ( MARO) collapsed from exhaustion Monday night and was brought to a hospital. She has since recovered.

If one thing had President going in a punishing summit schedule, it was the thought that soon he would return to his family and his hometown, Davao City, where he ruled as mayor for multiple terms.

“But I will recover because tomorrow will be the last day and I’m flying out to my city by the sea,” he said, singing.

“I feel it is my comfort zone, I see my grandsons and I embrace my youngest daughter and everything seems to be good. But when I land here back (Metro Manila) , it seems to be that something is wrong with this society,” he added. —KBK, GMA News