Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque. (File photo by JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Malacañang on Sunday maintained that President Duterte was not suffering from any serious illness, contrary to allegations of a party-list representative.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque pointed out that Prsident Duterte was his “usual fiery self” in his recent public appearances in Cebu and Davao last week.
“The President has no serious illness… The President has always been forthright about his condition,” said Roque.
He said the President was in good spirits when he spoke during a League of Municipalities event in Cebu, and the 12th anniversary of the Eastern Mindanao Command.
“What he is experiencing is typical of people of his age,” Roque said.
True condition
Roque made the remarks following Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano’s appeal to Presieent Duterte to reveal his true condition by releasing his medical records to the public.
Alejano claimed to have received information that the 73-year-old President was seriously ill.
Earlier, the President disputed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison’s claims that he had slipped into a coma last week.
Mr. Duterte said it was Sison who was suffering from colon cancer and was often in and out of the hospital.
Roque brushed off Alejano’s allegations as mere “misinformation.”
‘Did not wish death’
“Alejano’s misinformation is certainly in aid of election. We hope the people will judge him accordingly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sison maintained that he did not wish death upon President Duterte, whom he even thanked for owning up to the report of his being comatose.
Sison was responding to President Duterte’s claim during the 12th anniversary celebration of the Eastern Mindanao Command in Davao City last week that Sison played into his hands by disseminating the false information he had deliberately spread that he has stage 3 cancer and kidney failure.
In a message to reporters late Saturday night, Sison said, “I wish Duterte good health and I wish him to reach my current age.”
Sison is 79 years old, six years older than President Duterte.
“I also thank him for saying that the report about his coma came from him,” he added, pointing out that when he posted on Aug. 19 the report in his Facebook account he had specifically said it was “subject to verification or negation by his (Duterte’s) own public appearance or by credible medical bulletin.”
Even then, Sison said it was odd that the President “felt obliged to appear on the Monday (Aug. 20) night video and why his face was much darker than usual and he looked tired and dispirited.”
“He (Duterte) should take a good long rest. 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 said.
Addressing President Duterte’s claim that he has colon cancer, Sison said, “Duterte is categorically far worse than a quack doctor. With his sick mind, he has obviously invented the colon cancer that he ascribes me and makes it worse every day.”