MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said there was no need for a medical bulletin on President Rodrigo Duterte because he was not suffering from a serious illness.
The 74-year-old leader’s health has become a cause for concern after he fell off a motorcycle and later complained of “unbearable pain,” which was cited as the excuse for cutting short his trip to Tokyo where he attended the enthronement of the Japanese emperor early this week.
“A medical bulletin comes into play only when the President is in serious illness. That is a constitutional requirement,” Panelo said at a press briefing on Friday.
He was referring to Section 12, Article VII of the Constitution, which also state that “members of the Cabinet in charge of national security and foreign relations and the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, shall not be denied access to the President during such illness.”
Panelo said the President has always been transparent about his health, adding: “He even told you, ‘This is my illness.’ He is too transparent.”
Since the presidential campaign in 2016, the President has admitted he had a slipped disc from a motorcycle accident 10 years earlier for which he was taking Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid to deal with pain; Barrett’s esophagus, a serious complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease; Buerger’s disease, a constriction of blood vessels caused by accumulation of nicotine; and myasthenia gravis, which causes one of his eyelids to droop.
He also said last year that he had been tested negative for cancer of the esophagus.
The President fell off the motorcycle he was driving on Wednesday last week at the Presidential Security Group compound. On Thursday night, he briefly drove a three-wheel motorcycle without incident, said Sen. Bong Go, Mr. Duterte’s longtime aide, who posted a picture of the President riding it on his Facebook page.
The unbearable pain attributed to last week’s motorcycle accident was found to have been caused by “muscle spasm,” not by any spinal injury, Go said.
Skeptical Reds
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Saturday expressed skepticism about the President’s state of health.
“Any speculation of Duterte dying soon or long before his term ends will surely weaken his ruling coalition and intensify the crisis of the ruling system,” Marco Valbuena, CPP chief information officer, said in a statement.
He said keeping the President’s real state of health secret “aims to preempt open rivalries within ruling clique” but could move former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to vigorously push the resolution of his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo to favor his bid to assume the vice presidency. —With reports from Delfin T. Mallari Jr. and Inquirer Research