Advertisement

Philippine President skipped summit meetings because he was taking 'power naps'

<em>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apparently missed several meetings at theASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit in Singapore because he was taking power naps (Picture: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)</em>
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apparently missed several meetings at theASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit in Singapore because he was taking power naps (Picture: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)

The Philippine President missed several meetings at a regional summit in Singapore because he was taking “power naps”.

Rodrigo Duterte missed four scheduled events at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit because he was “catching up on sleep”, his office told the BBC.

It’s not the first time Mr Duterte has missed events at international summits and in the Philippines, leading to speculation about his health.

But his spokesman told the BBC that his absence at the events at the ASEAN were not connected to his health and the president had “worked late and had only less than three hours of sleep”.

President Duterte wasn’t the only leader caught nodding off at the summit.

MORE: ‘Sleeping’ supervolcano near Naples ‘could be building up to eruption’
MORE: Monkey kills 12-day-old boy after snatching baby from mother in India

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin tweeted a picture of South Korean president Moon Jae-in, who appeared to be asleep ahead of meeting US Vice-President Mike Pence.

Bloomberg reporter Toluse Olorunnipa also shared an image saying Mr Moon had fallen asleep after “waiting 15 minutes” for Mr Pence to arrive.