Duterte too sick to last 6-year presidency, says Binay
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
Vice President Jejomar Binay on Wednesday hinted that his newfound rival Davao city Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is too sick to last a six-year presidency.
In an interview with reporters on Wednesday in Tangub city, Misamis Occidental, Binay chided Duterte for being too ill to run for the presidency and dared him to issue a doctor’s certificate that he is fit for the campaign.
Binay had issued his doctor’s certificate showing that he was cleared by the doctor to run for president.
“Siguro Mr. Duterte, mag-issue ka naman, kahit na certificate lang that you’re in the pink of health,” Binay said.
“Kasi yung pagkakasabi niya, macho, kung magsalita, machong-macho. Ako yung mga salita niyang pagka-macho, itinatago niya lang na may sakit siya,” Binay added.
Duterte had once missed delivering a speech before a health group after suffering from a migraine attack.
READ: About to face health group, Duterte experiences migraine
Duterte later admitted having four ailments – acute bronchitis, a slipped disk from a motorcyle accident, Barrett’s esophagus, *(which affects the tissue lining along the esophagus), and Buerger’s disease, a constriction of the blood vessels caused by accumulation of nicotine.
READ: Duterte admits he has 4 ailments
When asked if Duterte would last six years into his presidency, Binay said: “I doubt.”
Binay said this may be the reason why Duterte had once said the latter would give the presidency to Sen. Bongbong Marcos, the vice presidential candidate of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, if he fails to stamp out crime within the six months of his administration.
“Kaya kita mo, siguro kaya nababanggit niya, pagka kuwan e ibibigay na niya lamang kay Bongbong. Tinangggihan niya naman. Namutla tuloy si Cayetano nung sinabi si Bongbong,” Binay said. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is the running mate of Duterte.
The Vice President launched his fiercest attacks against Duterte after the latter led the latest Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia surveys while Binay only trailed behind.
Binay once praised Duterte as a good candidate for president having years of experience as local government chief executive in Davao City.
But Binay’s admiration for Duterte turned into vilification. He minced no words in urging voters not to vote for Duterte, who he said is a “murderer” and a “butcher” for his alleged links to the Davao Death Squad which killed minors suspected of being criminals.
READ: Binay twits Duterte: Your killing of the poor isn’t debatable
While he was hailed for his anti-crime crusade, Duterte had been linked to the Davao Death Squad, an alleged gang of assassins purportedly responsible for the deaths of 1,000 suspected criminals in the city since he became mayor in 1988.
“They say I am the death squad? True, that is true,” Duterte once said in a television interview admitting his ties to the alleged group.
READ: Duterte confirms ‘ties’ with Davao Death Squad
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has expressed concern for Duterte’s backing of extra-judicial killings amid a rise in summary executions of suspected criminals in Davao City.
The Human Rights Watch in a commentary even called Duterte the “Philippines’ Death Squad Mayor.”
“The Philippine government should take a zero-tolerance approach to any public official who publicly endorses extrajudicial killings as an acceptable means of crime control,” Phelim Kine, HRW deputy Asia director, said in a statement last year.
READ: Duterte to rights group: You are all hypocrites
When rights group Amnesty International in December 2015 issued a statement condemning Duterte’s record of human rights violations, Duterte said the group understated his record and bragged that he had killed 1,700 people, not 700 people. TVJ
READ: Amnesty Int’l raises red flags on Duterte
