The last time we remember the seating arrangement being so political was in high school.
Based on information from a Malacañang press release, news agencies reported that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will be seated next to United States President Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary Ban Ki Moon at the ASEAN Summit gala dinner on Wed, Sep 7.
It may be recalled that Duterte has had some issues (more or less) involving Obama and the UN.
That interesting (for lack of a better word) seating arrangement, though, never happened.
ABS-CBN News confirmed that Duterte was seated far from the two.
For the record, as the report noted, “Duterte was seated between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Obama, meanwhile, was seated beside Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and the Vietnam prime minister’s wife.”
What did happen was Obama and Duterte “shook hands and had a brief chat,” according to Reuters.
To which Foreign Affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay speedily interpreted as springing “from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong.”
