Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte AFP PHOTO
He has complained of fatigue and once cited jet lag as a reason for missing a once-a-year dinner among world leaders.
But with his latest statement doubting if he would live to finish his six-year term, President Duterte should now publicly disclose his state of health, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Thursday.
“He should, because what it appears like is that he is giving hints. All the more [that] the public should be informed what is the state of health of the President. If he is sick, then he should say what really is his ailment,” Lacson said of President Duterte, who at 71 is the oldest man to ever become Philippine leader.
He said the President’s statements create “uncertainty” even while there is no danger of a “vacuum in leadership” given clear succession rules in the 1987 Constitution.
Premonition?
“If he has made statements and it appears that he might be sick and can’t finish his term, what is that, a premonition? So, we should also be worried,” Lacson told reporters.
Lacson said that while one’s state of health is “an individual responsibility,” the President’s is of “national concern.”
Lacson said the disclosure should include the President’s medical record, and even a periodic “medical bulletin.”
Speaking to the Filipino community in Cambodia earlier this week, Duterte, said he was “not sure if I will still be around by the end of my term.”
President Duterte said he had belatedly realized that he didn’t need the presidential office even as he did not regret winning in May.
Asked about the President’s brash and at times inappropriate manner of speaking, Lacson expressed doubts that Mr. Duterte may ever change.
Adjust to Duterte’s style
Lacson, a former police chief who was raised in a tradition of deferring to the hierarchy of command, said Duterte had the right to have Filipinos adjust to him, instead of the other way around.
“I am not defending him. Sometimes it irritates me (Mr. Duterte’s manner of speaking). But it seems like that’s really how he is,” Lacson said.
“And I don’t think he will ever metamorphose into a statesman. He said ‘give me some time I will metamorphose,’ but as things are shaping up, that’s not happening. Perhaps at the end of his term, we would be all like that,” Lacson said.
He said he was “slowly adapting” to the President’s style.
“In due time, I think we’ll get used to it. When he says one thing, I say wait a minute. When he said he spoke to God and people reacted, he said we were all crazy for believing him,” Lacson said.
“It so happens he is President…In due time, we’ll be able to adjust unless he is the one who adjusts. But we cannot tell him to adjust to all of us,” he added./rga