Malacañang has given assurances President Rodrigo Duterte is in perfect shape despite experiencing a migraine and skipping two public engagements in Davao City on March 15.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made this assurance Monday, noting the President quickly recovered after resting for three hours.
“He had a migraine. But after three hours of rest, he recovered and he went to work reading so many documents. He just stayed in the house,” Panelo told a Palace briefing.
“He is okay. As I said, he concentrated on his work—the paperwork, there are so many things to read and to study,” he added.
In related developments:
• An official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said members of the Catholic clergy were continuing to pray for Duterte amid his continued verbal attacks against priests, with Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos saying he just “turned the other cheek.”
“We continue to pray, and pray for him. We just focus doing what is
best, what beneficial to our people,” the head of the CBCP- Episcopal
Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People told Radyo Veritas.
• From Catarman, Northern Samar, the President’s daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio told reporters everything was well with her father’s health.
Sara, the campaign manager of administration slate Hugpong ng Pagbabago, made the pronouncement two days after the President missed the land distribution for farmers and the campaign rally of the ruling party PDP-Laban where the President serves as party chairman.
“I don’t think there is a problem with him. Last night, he was up and about. There are no issues about his health,” Sara told reporters during a campaign stop here.
Panelo said the usual migraine affected the President every now and then but it was not a cause for concern.
He said the President was currently in Davao and had no engagements this week, at least as of posting time.
Earlier, former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go said the President was “indisposed.”
The 73-year-old President previously admitted that he suffered from a spinal injury he sustained from a motorcycle incident years ago and bouts of migraine.
In October 2018, he bared that he underwent colonoscopy and endoscopy and that there were findings that his Barrett’s esophagus was “badly eroded” due to alcohol intake but was otherwise healthy.
A Social Weather Stations survey conducted on Dec. 16 to 19, 2018 showed that 66 percent of Filipinos are worried about the President’s health, an increase of 11 percent from September 2018’s 55 percent.
However, Panelo has repeatedly assured there is no cause for concern about the President’s well-being since he is “conscientious” of his health.
Panelo said Duterte would put a break to his activities if he felt his body was “not up to it."
