MALACANANG pronounced that there is nothing to worry about the Chief Executive’s health.
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about kung ang iniisip ng taumbayan ay ang kanyang kalusugan,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised interview.
The pronouncement on President Rodrigo Duterte’s health came over a footage that saw the president almost losing his balance on his way to the podium on Monday to deliver his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA).
According to Roque, the President looks more like he slipped, but a closer look at the footage showed the surface as covered with carpet and slipping may seem remote, to say the least.
“Parang nadulas lang siya kahapon,” he added.
In a bid to ward off apprehensions as to whether the 76-year-old Duterte is still mentally fit and capable to discharge functions of a working President, Roque said that despite the Malacañang chief executive’s age, “he has no extraordinary problem.”
“Alam niyo wala naman po siyang extraordinary na problema. He is who he is, he is a senior citizen, at mukhang nadulas lang naman siya kahapon,” Roque further averred.
At one point during Duterte’s almost three-hour long SONA, he said he could no longer pronounce the words in his prepared speech correctly and joked about contracting COVID-19. He even asked if there was an ambulance on standby.
Prominent personalities in attendance at the Batasang Pambansa Session Hall laughed at Duterte’s remarks.