President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gestures as he delivers his speech during the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Visayas Island Cluster Conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City on August 21, 2018. SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 August) – Founding Communist Party of the Philippines chair Jose Maria Sison was making irrational insinuations about President Rodrigo Duterte’s state of health, City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said Tuesday.
“My guess is, at the rate that he or his caretaker is unraveling, he will soon say PRD is not human but an alien in the form of Rodrigo Duterte” Carpio said in a statement.
The president’s daughter said Sison sent her a few years ago chocolates and a note containing a message that was “rational and pleasant” unlike his recent social media posts claiming the President had lapsed into coma.
“His recent Facebook posts about the dying PRD is not rational and napaisip ako kung siya ba ang nagpost or baka caretaker nalang ni Joma (that made me think if it was him or his caretaker),” she added.
Sison posted on August 19 a photo of Duterte at a national conference of Lex Talionis of San Beda College of Law with a caption that those who saw the president “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.”
“The latest report (still to be verified or negated) is that Duterte has gone into coma since the afternoon or evening of today, Sunday, August 19. The report is still being verified by the press from the Palace. People are awaiting the personal appearance of Duterte and medical bulletin from his office,” he said.
This was denied by the Palace on Monday with presidential spokesperson Harry Roque saying the President was in the pink of health.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sison denied claiming his posts were true and that he cautioned his followers that the report was subject to verification or negation by the public appearance of Duterte and by credible medical bulletin.
“I never claimed it to be certainly true but I cautioned the readers of my Facebook Timeline that the report is subject to verification or negation by the public appearance of Duterte and by credible medical bulletin,” he said.
Sison said: “I am pleased to see that Duterte is still alive and that there is a chance of his living long enough to be held accountable for his crimes against the people and be tried by the people´s court or by the International Criminal Court.”
He said he wished the president to live long enough to receive a warrant of arrest.
“I am also gratified that the aforesaid video shows Duterte truly looking very tired and dispirited, his face still very dark and his right eye drooping. He looks like he just came from dialysis or some other kind of treatment on Sunday,” he said.
“His video appearance somehow confirms the report that on Saturday, August 18 his face was darker than usual and that he was slow and unstable while shaking hands with his Lex Taliones fraternity brods,” he added.
Sison said the video indicates that Duterte suffers from “some serious illness, such as the aggravation of his self-admitted Buerger´s disease and/or his kidney problem due to frequent use of pain killers, including fentanyl.” (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
