Joma Sison on colon cancer: It’s just in Duterte’s mind
MANILA — Just President Duterte’s imagination.
This was how Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison reacted to the allegation of President Duterte that he has been suffering from colon cancer.
“I am in good health. No cancer of any kind. Neither any other kind of malignancy… The colon cancer comes from his imagination,” Sison told the Philippine Daiy Inquirer in an online chat after Mr. Duterte made the claim in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Sison urged Mr. Duterte to instead be “more serious by studying what it takes for the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) to return to the negotiating panel, unless he is hell bent on killing the peace process.”
Sison said that indeed, he was hospitalized on March 20 at the Rheumatology Department of the Utrecht University Medical Center.
Sison said his doctors treated him for loss of appetite that stemmed from his auto-immunity triggered by the autumn and winter seasons in the Netherlands where he has been based for over two decades. He was confined in connection with rheumatoid arthritis.
“I had gotten several symptoms of Sweet Syndrome: lack of appetite, loss of weight, itchiness on the skin, pain in the joints, etc. But not the most serious symptoms like leukemia and other kinds of blood
disorder,” Sison said.
Sison, 78, said he has been able to keep a regular exercise routine of skipping rope, doing push ups, jogging, and biking, but he said he no longer lifted metal weights.
“Masyado naman ma-personal si Duterte,” Sison said. SFM
