President Rodrigo Duterte leads the wreath laying ceremony in commemoration of the 123rd Rizal Day in Davao City on 30 December 2019. Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte (left) also graced the event. MindaNews file photo by MANMAN DEJETO
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 April) – President Rodrigo R. Duterte “has no illness,” presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte claimed Monday.
During her live program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5), the mayor assured the Filipino people that her septuagenarian father “is in good shape,” although she admitted that they have not talked lately.
The mayor declined to provide any further information, saying that “she was not the right person” to update the public about President Duterte.
“Let’s just wait for his office, the Office of the President, to give such an update about him,” she said.
Mayor Duterte noted that the people around President Duterte have been extra cautious of their movement in Malacañan Palace after a number of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) tested positive for COVID-19.
In an interview with state-run PTV-4 last Wednesday, PSG chief Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III said that a total of 126 presidential guards have contracted COVID-19, the state-owned Philippine News Agency reported.
Durante said at the time that 45 were active cases, noting that the President “was safe and in good health.”
But Mayor Duterte admitted that the 76-year-old President belongs to the “most vulnerable group.”
President Duterte has been missing from the public eye for about two weeks now, fueling speculations that his health is declining.
Mayor Duterte said her recent four-day trip to Singapore from April 6 to 10 had nothing to do with the “health status” of the President.
She said she flew to Singapore for her “personal health management,” although she did not elaborate.
The mayor revealed that her next trip to Singapore is scheduled this October and in April 2022.