Baste scoots off to Singapore; GAB offers referee

Davao City acting Mayor Sebastian "Baste" Duterte left for Singapore early yesterday morning, together with his family and staff.

- EDITH REGALADO, Jose Rodel Clapano, Mark Ernest Villeza, Emmanuel Tupas, Joey Villar

Duterte left ahead of his publicly anticipated charity exhibition boxing match against Philippine National Police chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila tomorrow.

Torre had earlier agreed to the acting mayor's challenge for a boxing match, to which Duterte had added conditions after the PNP chief accepted the offer.

The report of Duterte's departure was confirmed by the National Bureau of Investigation yesterday.

NBI Director Jaime Santiago said the mayor, his family and office staff left the country on Scoot Flight TR 369, which took off from Davao International Airport at 7:10 a.m.

While the Bureau of Immigration has yet to reflect records of Duterte's flight, the NBI noted that such data typically takes 24 hours to appear in the system.

Duterte has yet to release an official statement on the details of his trip and when he will return.

It remains uncertain if Duterte will proceed to The Hague to visit his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is detained at the International Criminal Court (ICC) facility on charges of crimes against humanity.