Rody: I’m tired of listening to Joma

President Duterte is tired not just of corruption in government but also of listening to his former professor turned fierce critic Jose Maria Sison, the rebel leader who previously claimed the Chief Executive was seriously ill.

Duterte said Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, seems to be waging his revolution by monitoring the sickness of other people.

“I am tired of listening to Joma Sison. Look at how degenerate he is. He no longer has an ideology. He keeps on monitoring the illness of other people,” the President said yesterday during National Heroes Day rites at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig.

Last week, Sison claimed to have received reports that Duterte went into a coma and cited the President’s supposedly darker face and shaking hands.

Sison made the statement days after Duterte admitted that he was fed up with corruption in government and had considered resigning because of the endless chase against corrupt officials.

Duterte shot down rumors that he is sick, but admitted being in “perpetual pain” because of a motorcycle accident during his younger years.

The President previously said he was experiencing back pains, migraine and Buerger’s disease or inflammation of blood vessels due to smoking.

Duterte claimed that his face was darker because he likes to roam the mountains.

The President turned the tables on Sison by saying that the rebel leader is suffering from colon cancer.

Duterte described Sison as a “discredited leader” who is “talking nonsense.”

He also claimed that Sison is a “freeloader” who does not pay his hospital bills in the Netherlands, where he has been in self-exile since 1987.

The President said Sison’s rebellion is bound to fail and even threatened to slap him if he sees him in hell.

Joma to Rody: Release medical records

Sison challenged Duterte to undergo medical examination at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and in turn, the rebel leader would release to the public his own medical certificate.

“I challenge Duterte to submit himself to a medical examination by the best independent diagnosticians of the PGH to establish whether he is physically and mentally fit for his position,” Sison said in a statement posted on the National Democratic Front website on Sunday.

Sison said the President should resign to enable him to get enough rest.

“Despite my right to privacy as a private citizen, I am willing to show a true and verifiable medical certificate on the state of my health as soon as he shows his own medical records as a matter of public interest,” Sison said.

Duterte’s close aide Christopher Go said Sison should just come home and see for himself that the President is healthy.

“If he wants, the President can have a checkup... We will see that the President is strong. He is in tip-top condition and has a clean bill of health,” Go told radio station dzRB yesterday.

Duterte made light of rumors that he is sick. “Sa awa ng Diyos po kaya ko

pang umibig (By God’s grace I can still love),” he said.

The word war between Duterte and Sison erupted after the government canceled the peace talks slated for June supposedly to allow the President to revisit the previous deals signed with the communists.