‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings’

DAVAO CITY – Visibly irked, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at a veteran journalist and branded him a “paid hack” for posting on social media that the former was dropping out of the 2016 presidential race because he had terminal throat cancer.

“There is no throat cancer,” declared Duterte in his regular Sunday morning television program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” here.

He described Philip Lustre Jr. a “paid hack” for posting on his Facebook account Thursday that the feisty mayor had throat cancer.

Duterte’s spokesperson Peter Lavina had earlier said on his own FB post that Lustre had been “hitting Duterte since Day One,” or when the Davao City mayor started going around the Philippines to go on a tour pushing for a change of government to federalism – a move many interpreted as his way to get the people’s pulse for a possible presidential run.

Lavina also accused Lustre of being a known supporter of Vice President Jejomar Binay, a presidential aspirant.

“Something is wrong in (Lustre’s mind). He is the one suffering from an impotent mind,” Duterte said.

And even if he, indeed, had cancer, Duterte said this didn’t disqualify him from running in the 2016 presidential derby.

Duterte had earlier announced that he was categorically dropping out of the 2016 presidential race but was nevertheless criticized for making an empty statement when he jumped right back into his nationwide tour to espouse federalism the next day.

Then probably to stop talk that he had reneged on his announcement to quit his presidential bid, Duterte’s camp said last Wednesday that the mayor had cancelled several commitments in Metro Manila this week, including a meeting with taxi and jeepney drivers at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta tomorrow that would have snowballed into a mass action asking him to reconsider and declare his intentions to run for president next year.

But Lustre’s social network post may have saved his supporters all the trouble of going to Luneta.

“It ain’t over till the fat lady sings the blues,” Duterte hinted at the close of his program.

But Duterte did admit that he is not altogether in the pink of health.

He said he has “Buerger disease,” which constricts the veins that could be blamed on Duterte’s smoking in the past.

He also revealed that he had “Barrett’s esophagus” which has been attended to by his physicians.

Duterte has also suffered from spine problems brought about by the long motorcycle rides he used to take.

In his visit to the Manila Bulletin earlier this year, Duterte admitted watching his diet because he was suffering from “gout.”