{"id":177696,"date":"2018-08-20T02:59:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T06:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=177696"},"modified":"2018-08-20T02:59:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T06:59:37","slug":"palace-joma-stop-wishing-duterte-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/20\/palace-joma-stop-wishing-duterte-ill\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace to Joma: ‘Stop wishing Duterte ill’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque shrugged off Sison\u2019s remark stressing that Duterte showed up in events, adding that the communist leader should not make comments about the President\u2019s health since he has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987 and is \u201cnot a doctor.\u201d (File Photo by Briant de <\/a>los Santos via Joma Sison\/Facebook)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday debunked the rumor being spread by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison that President Rodrigo R. Duterte is in coma and urged him to stop wishing the Chief Executive ill.<\/p>\n

On his Facebook account, Sison claimed sources have told him that there was a \u201cdarkness\u201d in Duterte\u2019s face during the national convention of fraternity Lex Talionis Fraternitas of the San Beda Law School on Saturday (August 18).<\/p>\n

Sison said the President was in coma since Sunday night although the report is still being verified.<\/p>\n

Under the Constitution, the public should be informed of the President\u2019s state of health.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque shrugged off Sison\u2019s remark stressing that Duterte showed up in events, adding that the communist leader should not make comments about the President\u2019s health since he has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987 and is \u201cnot a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to what Joma Sison said, the President is fine and well in Davao participating in Kadayawan (festival). He will have a public appearance tomorrow (Tuesday) with the League of Cities in Cebu City,\u201d Roque said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs usual, Joma Sison does not know what he talks about. How will he know about the state of health of the President when he is far away in the Netherlands?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque said perhaps during the event, Duterte was simply pictured without wearing face powder.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he\u2019s not wearing powder. The President normally wears powder. Maybe it was just a photo taken of him without powder. I don\u2019t see anything extraordinarily different from the President\u2019s face,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSison is a revolutionary and not a doctor. Let\u2019s not listen to him as far as medical condition is concerned,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Here to stay<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque also appealed to Sison, as well as other critics of the President, to stop wishing Duterte ill, warning that attributing a disease to a person could be libelous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always wishful thinking on his (Sison\u2019s) part. But the President is here to stay. I don\u2019t know if he can say the same thing about himself and about his movement,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSasabihin ko lang po doon sa mga kritiko ni Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(I just want to address the President\u2019s critics), stop wishing him ill as far as his health is concerned. Every time you wish him ill, lalong lumalakas (he gets stronger),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if the Palace would release Duterte\u2019s medical records to put rumors to rest, Roque stressed that the President\u2019s public appearances were enough proof that he is in good health.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he appears in public we\u2019re debunking reports that he\u2019s in coma so why do you need a document to show that he\u2019s in perfectly good health? Tomorrow, he will be there (League of Cities) and that\u2019s proof that he\u2019s not in coma,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque insisted that there was no need to make public the President\u2019s health records because \u201cthere\u2019s no information that the President is sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will ask but the President already said that he was already given a clean bill of health. So that\u2019s actually making public the results of his medical tests,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s healthy. I talked to former Secretary Vit(aliano) Aguirre who was in the fair, he was fine. He stayed till 12. He was in high spirits. He enjoyed the company of his brods in Lex Talionis,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, said Duterte has complained about his migraine in public but \u201cthat\u2019s about it.\u201d Duterte earlier said he suffered from back aches he acquired from a spinal injury.<\/p>\n

Robust health<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, for his part, described Sison\u2019s remark as \u201cabsolutely false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps that is the wish of Joma Sison hence when he is fed with the wrong information on PRRD’s health he easily believes in it. Unlike Joma Sison, the President is in robust health,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish him good health that he may live long enough to see the dawn of peace that has remained elusive between the communist insurgents and the armed forces,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile said Duterte is still open to peace talks with the CPP as long as they were held in the Philippines and conditions were met.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ko po sinasara ang pinto pero habang nagkakaroon ng mga guni-guning ganyan si Joma Sison, napakahirap naman makipag-usap sa kanya<\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019m not closing the door, but while he makes hallucinations like that, it\u2019s difficult to talk to him),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Last July 22, Duterte underwent his routine medical checkup at Cardinal Santos Hospital, a day before he delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), where he was reported to be \u201cin good health.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday debunked the rumor being spread by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":156060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}