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MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte's return to Davao City over the weekend is exempted from flight restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Cabinet official said Monday.

• Duterte back home in Davao after 2 months as Metro Manila lockdown eases

The President made the trip as Metro Manila eased its lockdown measures to a modified enhanced community quarantine, under which domestic flights remain barred.

• Cebu, Mandaue cities to remain under enhanced quarantine; more areas under modified lockdown
• READ: Travel rules as Philippines starts easing coronavirus lockdown

Davao City, however, is under general community quarantine, according to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, who also serves as vice chair of the National Task Force against COVID-19.

"I think the President’s flight is one of those exemptions being the highest official of the land. He has the authority to go anywhere he wants and being the chief executive, chief implementor of all the laws of the land he can go wherever he wants as long as health standards and protocol are observed," he told ANC.

"So I don’t see anything wrong with the President’s going to Davao."

The President's trip was the first time in 2 months he had left Malacañang since a strict lockdown was imposed to contain the pandemic. He had spent his​ 75th birthday under quarantine at the Palace in March.

• No celebration as Duterte marks birthday in self-quarantine

Duterte will join next week's meeting of government's Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Presidential Security Group chief Col. Jesus Durante III said.