President Rodrigo Duterte walks at the Villamor Air Base on Thursday, June 15, 2017, as he is set to fly to Davao City. (Photo from Malacañang)
President Duterte on Saturday said he was not on a medical break when he disappeared from public view the past five days.
“My state of health is: What you see is what you get,” he told reporters here after visiting soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division advance command post in Butuan City.
The President, who said he had a medical examination last year, also debunked rumors that he was in a coma.
“Coma? Nasa kama lang ako,” he said.
But he said that during his absence, he traveled “incognito” with his close aide to an undisclosed place in Mindanao.
He called on the people not to worry much about his health.
“My state of health is irrelevant,” he said, adding that Vice President Leni Robredo would be there to replace him.
“You must learn from Davao media. I do not need anybody to ask where I am going. Kasi pag di niyo ako nakita ng limang araw eh di patay na yan. Sso you swear in Robredo. Ano ba ang problema niyo? May bise presidente,” he said.
In Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte, which he visited before going to Butuan, Duterte said he did not show up at the Independence Day celebration at Rizal Park in Manila because he was “so tired.”
“I was really tired. It was not that I snubbed the Independence Day celebration,” he told Cabadbaran residents who were celebrating the town”s 50th foundation day.
On June 11, the night before Independence Day, Duterte attended the welcome honors at Villamor Air Base in Pasay of the eight of 13 marines killed in Marawi City.
He also visited the wake of two slain marines at the Philippine Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio.
Before that, he went around the country, visiting wounded troopers in hospitals and attending the wakes of those who were killed in action. /atm