No gala dinner invite for Leni

Vice President Leni Robredo was not invited to last night’s gala dinner hosted by President Duterte for world leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings. Her office confirmed to The STAR that it has not received an invitation to the dinner that would be attended by visiting world leaders and their spouses, foreign diplomats and other top government officials.

Robredo was also missing in the welcome ceremony for arriving leaders, a task often delegated to vice presidents in previous administrations.

Instead, it was former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who welcomed some of the leaders, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi who arrived at Clark International Airport on Saturday.

Despite the apparent snub in some of the official activities, Robredo’s office confirmed the vice president would still attend the opening ceremony of the ASEAN summit at the Philippine International Convention Center today.

She will also be the keynote speaker at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit at Solaire Resort in Pasay City on Tuesday.

Robredo – chair of the former ruling Liberal Party – was Duterte’s housing secretary until December 2016, when she resigned after being barred from attending Cabinet meetings.