Palace: Aquino in ‘generally good health’

President Benigno Aquino III. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Despite his persistent smoking, President Benigno Aquino III is healthy.

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a press briefing Friday that the 54-year-old Aquino maintains a “generally good health.”

“The President consults his personal physicians on a very regular basis. And I was told by one of them that: ‘Yes, he maintains, generally, (in) good health,” Valte said.

The statement came after United States President Barack Obama was recently given a clean bill of health by his physician, saying his “tobacco-free” lifestyle helped him improve his health.

The American president stopped smoking in 2010, Obama’s wife Michelle announced in 2011. Obama is 52.

Back when Aquino was about to assume presidency, he brushed aside calls to quit smoking, stressing that it was one of his “few remaining freedoms.”

But Aquino, who was 50 then, promised to quit “at the appropriate time.”

Valte refused to divulge further information on Aquino’s health, saying she recognizes the “patient-doctor privilege” of the President.

She, however, revealed that Aquino tends to have stomach pains, which he consults immediately to his physicians.

“I know that some circumstances tend to—and he has mentioned this to us also—tend to aggravate his allergies, sometimes,” she said.

Aquino is reportedly allergic to pollen.

So when the President visits an area outside of the Palace, Valte said his staff always makes sure that the place, as much as possible, is cleared of anything that would trigger his allergies.

“But, you know, that cannot happen all the time,” she added.

In August last year, he skipped the inauguration of the Aluling Bridge in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, which took 35 years to complete, for having an allergy attack after being exposed to flowers at close proximity during an event in Camp Crame.

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