Philippine minister: Duterte doesn’t have cancer
MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not have cancer, the acting interior minister said, after the firebrand leader underwent tests in a private hospital.
The public has been clamouring for information about Duterte’s health after the 73-year-old missed two official events last week.
“He disclosed to us that the result of the test was negative, the one where they took samples from his intestines,” Eduardo Ano told reporters in an event posted on Facebook live by domestic news agencies yesterday.
Ano said Duterte made the disclosure during a Cabinet meeting on Monday night.
He made an unscheduled visit to a hospital when doctors asked him to repeat digestive tract procedures three weeks after similar tests.
Duterte’s condition “is not seri- ous” and would remain a confidential matter, his spokesman Harry Roque told a separate news briefing, declining either to confirm or deny the prior remarks of the acting interior minister.
“The President will abide by the constitution, but because it is not serious, he will treat his medical condition as confidential,” he said.
Roque declined to give details of the test results and Duterte’s health.
“Let us wait for his disclosure. Anything that is confidential can be waived by the person alone,” he added.
The Philippine constitution provides for the public to be told of the state of health of an incumbent president, if serious.
If the leader dies in office, permanently disabled or removed through impeachment, the vice-president succeeds to serve out the rest of a six-year, single term.
Vice-president Leni Robredo, an opposition leader, was elected separately in 2016 and could fuel uncertainty in the succession process in a highly polarised political climate.
Duterte’s health was a constant source of speculation after he disappeared from public view for a week last year, but his aides dismissed rumours of his medical condition. — Reuters
He (Duterte) disclosed to us that the result of the test was negative. Eduardo Ano