Duterte accepts Binay medical checkup challenge

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has accepted the challenge of Vice President Jejomar Binay to disclose his medical records, but on condition that each of them will be examined by each other’s doctor.

“Yes, as long as he would undress in front of me and everyone else. Let’s see who is sick,” Duterte told reporters in an interview in Bulacan on Wednesday.

Binay has claimed his 71-year-old rival in the presidential race will not be able to finish his six-year term if he wins the election because he is sick.

Duterte responded by poking fun at the 73-year-old Vice President.

“Have you seen Binay’s hands during the debate last time? I am not sure if he was just nervous or if he was really sick,” Duterte said, shaking his hands.

Each other’s doctor

“Maybe that is a thief’s disease,” he said, drawing laughter from journalists.

“It is difficult to count billions,” he added.

Duterte said he was willing to submit his medical records for public scrutiny, but the doctor who would examine him should be Binay’s doctor and the doctor who would examine Binay should be his doctor.

He noted that he had previously admitted to having Buerger’s disease, a rare disease of the arteries and veins, as a result of his smoking.

“He has no ailments except the Buerger’s disease. That was why he had stopped smoking,” Duterte’s former wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman, said at the celebration of her 68th birthday in Cebu.

Duterte had also said he would not be able to finish a six-year term as President, citing his health problems and threats to his life.

But he denied that he had throat cancer.

What dialysis?

There are rumors that Duterte is undergoing dialysis twice a week.

Asked about that, Duterte showed reporters his arms, which should be scarred if he was really undergoing dialysis.

“Where?” he asked.