President Rodrigo Duterte denied allegations by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison that he is suffering from a kidney failure.
“Dying? Kidney, my arm looks really good. Here, see?” Duterte said in bisaya during his speech in Mandaue City on Thursday, August 30.
On Tuesday, Sison shared a Twitter post by netizen @mhonrs, calling it a ‘prognosis’ by a doctor. In his caption, the CPP leader said, “In the photo below, compare the arm of Duterte with the dark discoloration of his face, which is supposed to be a symptom of a kidney problem, an indication of renal failure.”
Sison clarified that the information he is sharing about Duterte’s health is still “subject to further diagnosis by publicly trusted doctors of medicine.”
However, Duterte said his skin darkens naturally as he does not use sunscreen.
“It’s always like this every election. So I have so many elections in my life including the presidency. This is what I’ve gained, burnt skin. It won’t heal right away but it will eventually be back to normal,” the President stressed.
He also hit Sison anew for saying that he recently fell into a coma.
“He’s saying I will die from comatose. Comatose is a good thing if it can still harden with Viagra, but there’s really nothing for you,” Duterte told his former professor.
“I might give you five cans of Viagra, but there’s nothing there. He was silent when I paraded beautiful girls in front of him,” he continued.
Sison last Sunday dared the President to submit himself to medical examination by the Philippine General Hospital’s (PGH’s) best independent diagnosticians to “establish whether he is physically and mentally fit for his position.”
In return, Sison said he is willing to show a “true and verifiable” medical certificate on the state of his health after Duterte had also several times claimed that the communist leader is seriously ill — most recently was that the latter has colon cancer.
Duterte’s top aide then challenged Sison to fly back to the Philippines and join the Chief Executive in undergoing a medical check-up.
“Tignan natin sino ang mas malakas sa kanila, sino ‘yung may clean bill of health (Let’s see who is stronger between the two of them, who has a clean bill of health),” Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go earlier told reporters.