Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte skipped the APEC gala dinner and cultural presentation hosted by Vietnam President Quang Friday night, Philippine Star reported.

Foreign Affairs Sec. Alan Cayetano and wife, Lani, represented the President during the event.

According to Cayetano, the president wanted to rest early due to his early schedule for the APEC leaders' retreat Saturday.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, however, gave different reasons in a Facebook post why Duterte skipped the dinner.

"The President was not able to attend the gala dinner because of two things: 1. He is attending to urgent ASEAN hosting matters; 2. He is supervising and coordinating safe recovery of Vietnamese captives of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)," Roque said.

It can be recalled that Duterte also skipped the 2016 APEC gala dinner due to migraine. But then he admitted that he skipped these events on purpose to avoid an "awkward situation" with then US president Barack Obama who had expressed concern for his controversial drug war.