Duterte skips elections in Barangay Matina

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday skipped voting in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Davao City.

Duterte was supposed to cast his vote at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School in Barangay Matina where his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, voted earlier in the day.

Polling places closed at 3 p.m. Monday to give way for the manual counting of votes.

"No reason," Special Assistant to the President Secretary Bong Go said when asked why Duterte failed to vote.

Low turnout in President Duterte’s precinct. Only 97 of 272 cast their votes. The president also didnt vote. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/aYCutc1Jpi

— ivan mayrina (@ivanmayrina) May 14, 2018

GMA News' Ivan Mayrina tweeted that only 97 of 272 cast their votes in the president's precinct.

Reports said the school brought out the "seat of victory", the armchair that Duterte sat on in May 2016 when he came to cast his vote for the national elections which he handily won.

Arlene Bello-Pernes, principal of the school, said they consider the seat a historical chair and have enclosed it in a glass casing since Duterte became the country’s leader.

Duterte was to return to Malacañang to administer the oath taking on Monday evening of Bernadette Romulo-Puyat as the new secretary of the Department of Tourism.

Romulo-Puyat succeeds Wanda Teo, who resigned last week over conflict of interest allegations in connection with the controversial P60-million ad placement on her brother’s program on state-run PTV. —NB, GMA News