WHO’S sick? Definitely not President Rodrigo Duterte, says Malacañang.
Oddly though, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque insisted that there is no need for the Palace to issue a medical bulletin to prove that the President, who has been absent from the public eye for the last two weeks, is still capable of discharging his functions.
In a press briefing, Roque said that a medical bulletin is issued only when the President is sick, adding the the 76-year old Duterte is set to deliver a public address tonight – the first since missing the limelight.
“A medical bulletin is only given when the President is sick; and he is not sick… and remains fit and healthy for his age,” Roque said.
According to Malacañang, Duterte has missed public engagements last week after some 150 members of his security team contracted COVID-19.
Looking back, Duterte has admitted suffering Barrett’s esophagus, back pains, migraines and Buerger’s disease.
Roque added that Duterte “made all the decisions he needed to make” over the weekend regarding the quarantine status of Metro Manila and other areas and “supervised” the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
“Ang assumption n’yo po, kinakailangan magpakita para patunay na nagtatrabaho ang Presidente. Hindi po ganoon ang istilo ng ating President. Hindi na po niya kinakailangan ipagmayabang sa publiko na siya ay nagtatrabaho. Ang taumbayan naman ay naniniwala naman na on top of the situation ang President, even if hindi niya pinangangalandakan ito sa taongbayan,” Roque averred.
The last time Duterte was seen in public was on March 29, when he was on hand to receive the shipment of a million doses of a vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinovac.
He then went on hiatus for the Holy Week, and expected to resurface on April 5 for his weekly televised address. But that was abruptly cancelled following reports that more than 150 of his bodyguards tested positive for COVID-19.
That same day, his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, confirmed that she had flown to Singapore a day earlier with her son, a nanny and a bodyguard.
The presidential daughter declined to say why she went there, sparking speculations that Duterte himself could be in Singapore after suffering a mild stroke.
Purported photos of an air ambulance that supposedly flew Duterte to Singapore surfaced, and the hashtag #nasaanangpangulo trended anew on social media.
By Saturday, the nation was abuzz with rumors that he was already dead, compelling his longtime aide and now Senator Bong Go to release videos and photos showing Duterte jogging, golfing, and motorbike-riding, as proof of a healthy and alive Malacañang chief executive.
But far from the results they wanted, Go’s photos and video of a “healthy President” drew flak from graphic experts who claims “technical inconsistencies” in the material farmed out to the media.
Duterte had disappeared from public view before, each time rekindling talk about his declining health.
But while many seemed convinced that Duterte is dead, the president’s most vocal critic former senator Antonio Trillanes doesn’t believe it,
“He’s just lazy,” Trillanes said in a social media post.