Amid Resign Threats, Coma Allegations: Public Needs to Know About President’s Health

Screengrab from Inquirer.net.

PUBLIC SPECULATION on the president’s health intensified last month, when he was reported to have undergone a “routine check-up” before delivering his State of the Nation Address. As usual, the Palace denied all talk about Rodrigo Duterte suffering from any serious medical condition.

On August 19, Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, posted on Facebook that he had received information, which he said was “still to be verified or negated,” that Duterte was comatose.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque quickly denied the allegation in a press briefing the next day, calling Sison a “spent revolutionary and not a doctor.” In the evening of August 20, Special Assistant to the President Bong Go livestreamed a Facebook video showing Duterte having dinner with a woman identified only as “Bernice” from Harvard, in an undisclosed location. Duterte hit back at Sison, telling the latter that he was the one who was sick and in a coma.

The reports highlighted this “word war,” quoting legislators and personalities who either defended the president or asked him to officially disclose his medical condition. But with speculation about his health becoming more frequent, the media should have established why it is important to raise the issue this time.

CMFR cheers the Philippine Daily Inquirer for recalling significant details about the president’s health that were reported before the Duterte-Sison exchange.

In its report “Duterte shows up in Cebu” published on August 22, the Inquirer pointed out that the president had “disappeared” for five days and addressed a League of Municipalities meeting in Cebu City to dispel rumors about his health.

The Inquirer said that only a few days before Sison’s post on Facebook, Duterte “spoke about quitting, saying he was old and tired. Then he dropped out of public sight on Sunday and had not been seen since.” The report added that “Instead of issuing a statement from the President’s doctors, Palace officials made disparaging remarks about Sison that did not help to explain Mr. Duterte’s latest unscheduled vacation.”

GMA-7’s 24 Oras briefly quoted Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano’s statement that “the public has a right to know the health status of the president especially now that he is once again insinuating stepping down from office.”

Duterte himself has claimed that he suffers from serious illnesses, and has threatened on many occasions that he would resign once certain government aims have been achieved. His health, however, takes precedence over other conditions that would warrant his relief from duty, which then calls for a discussion of the matter of succession. Journalists should be able to report on Duterte’s health in this context, and not merely rely on quotes and statements.