Joma, 79, to Rody, 73: Let’s bare health records

LUCENA CITY—Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison on Saturday challenged President Duterte to join him in making public their latest medical records to finally settle questions on both their healths.

The 79-year-old Sison said the Constitution provided that it was the public’s right to know the health condition of the 73-year-old Mr. Duterte.

“If he will show this clearly with a certification from Philippine General Hospital doctors, I will make public my own medical certification from the hospital despite my right to privacy as a private citizen,” Sison said from Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Utrecht hospital

Sison had admitted being hospitalized for a month last year at Utrecht University Medical Center.

But he said he had been discharged with a clean bill of health after three weeks of diagnosis and treatment, and a week of observation for rheumatoid arthritis and skin allergy.

“[There were] no findings of cancer of any kind, cardiac problem or any other malignancy, which is life-threatening,” Sison said, countering Mr. Duterte’s claim that the communist leader was terminally ill.

The President had repeatedly been claiming since last year that Sison had undergone surgery several times over malignant tumors, and the cancer had spread to his pancreas.

Buerger’s disease

Mr. Duterte, on the other hand, had admitted that he was suffering from Buerger’s, a rare disease of the arteries and veins in the arms and legs.

Mr. Duterte also admitted suffering from continued pain caused by injuries from a motorcycle accident, for which he regularly takes the potent pain killer, fentanyl.

On Monday, Sison claimed that Mr. Duterte had not been making public appearances because he had been comatose, which Malacañang quickly branded as “fake news.”

Mr. Duterte spoke at the 12th anniversary of the Eastern Mindanao Command in Davao City on Thursday, where he reiterated his claim that Sison was dying of cancer.

Baiting Sison

In his speech, Mr. Duterte said he had allowed aides to spread false rumors about his health to bait Sison into making an issue out of it.

Sison later confirmed that “indeed, the report came from his direction.”

“At any rate, I wish him well, and I wish him to reach my current age,” Sison said of his former student in college.

“I do not mean that he should die but to resign from his position because the people are getting more tired of him failing to do his job properly and making the problems of the country far worse than before,” Sison added.