FILE PHOTO: Juan Ponce Enrile. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, 98, is confined in a hospital due to COVID-19.
In a post on his personal Facebook account, the incoming legal adviser of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos made an appeal “(t)o all my FB friends, critics, and enemies” to “(p)lease bear with me. I am in the hospital.”
But it appears that the nonagenarian is asymptomatic, as he noted not feeling any discomfort and that his body temperature has been normal, except for a dry cough.
“To my critics and enemies: Do not clap with glee. I am not going to die yet. Far from it,” Enrile also wrote on Facebook.
“Since three (3) days ago after I entered Makati Med. when I was diagnosed ‘positive’ for COVID virus. I never had any discomfort. No chills. No fever. No headache. No malaise. My body temperature ranges from 36* to 36.8*. My body oxygen ranges from 96 to 99. All my physical vital signs and blood chemistry readings were normal,” he shared.
Enrile, however, admitted that further tests revealed he has mild COVID-19 pneumonia.
With these developments, the defense minister of Marcos Jr.’s father, late former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., will no longer be able to attend the inauguration on Thursday, June 30.
“The only thing I had was a dry intermittent, sometimes intense, coughing. The CT-SCAN showed that I had mild COVID-19 pneumonia,” Enrile said.
“I informed the Executive Secretary, the Hon. Victor E. Rodriguez, about it and requested him to inform the President and ask him that I be excused from attending the oath-taking ceremonies of the President and the Vice President on June 30th at noon because I will still be in the hospital by then to complete the Anti-viral regimen prescribed by my doctors,” he added.
Enrile, who has been the subject of memes due to his relatively-strong physique despite his advanced age, said that he might have been asked to stay alive to fulfill more duties.
“God gave me very good doctors. He want(s) me, I humbly think, to stay here for some time more to engage you to help clear and clean up, if possible, your distorted narrative of our history for the benefit of the uninformed innocent people,” he claimed.
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