By GENALYN D. KABILING
President Duterte remains in robust health and has not fallen into a coma as alleged by communist leader Jose Maria Sison, Malacañang said yesterday.
To show the Chief Executive’s healthy condition, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the President is expected to attend the League of Municipalities of the Philippines event in Cebu today.
“Contrary to what Joma Sison said, the President is fine and well in Davao participating in Kadayawan. He will have a public appearance tomorrow,” Roque said during a Palace press briefing. “He is healthy,” he added.
Roque said Sison was a “spent revolutionary, not a doctor” so the public should not listen to him in terms of medical condition. He dismissed Sison’s allegation about the President’s health as “wishful thinking.”
“As usual, Joma Sison does not know what he talks about. How would he know about the state of health of the President when he is far away in the Netherlands?” he said. “That’s always wishful thinking on his part but the President is here to stay. I don’t know if he can say the same thing about himself and about his movement, the longest running insurgency in the world,” he added.
Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, shared on Facebook that the President has allegedly fallen into coma last Sunday, citing reports of his weak health in a public engagement in Davao City.
He alleged that the people who saw the President during the San Beda Law fraternity Lex Talionis event last Saturday “reported that the darkness of his face had become aggravated from its appearance the other day and that his walk and handshake had become more unstable.”
Roque denied that the President has fallen ill over the weekend, saying he was actually in high spirits during the event in Davao City. “He was fine. He stayed ‘til 12. They were in high spirits, he enjoyed the company of his brods in Lex Talionis,” he said, citing information from the President’s schoolmate, former Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II.
Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go also denied that the President was in a state of coma, saying he was only resting in bed. “Nasa kama lang nag-rest, kausap ko pa 2 a.m. kaninang madaling araw si PRRD. Baka nanaginip lang si Joma,” he said.
