Duterte, 74, suffering from incurable eye condition

ALLIES of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, played down concern about his health after the populist leader announced he is suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disorder.

Mr Duterte, who has quipped that he may not live out a six-year term that ends in 2022, told members of the Filipino community in Russia at the weekend that he has a rare autoimmune disease that is causing one of his eyelids to droop.

The condition is the latest to afflict the 74-year-old leader after back problems, migraines, a throat illness and a circulatory disease.

“He has localised ocular myasthenia. It has not progressed, it remains localised,” said a close Duterte aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go.

The president has had the condition for a long time, Mr Go told Reuters, although Mr Duterte’s spokesman told a news conference he only became aware of the president’s disorder after he mentioned it on Saturday.

“Nothing serious,” Mr Go said, adding that the president was “conscious of his health”. With an approval rating of about 80 per cent, there is little prospect of an opposition challenge to Mr Duterte’s authority, on health or any other grounds.

Known for his busy schedule and long speeches, several disappearances from public view have fuelled rumours about his declining health, but the government has repeatedly dismissed any suggestion of a problem.

There is no cure for myasthenia gravis, which causes muscle weakness, but treatment can relieve symptoms.

Mr Duterte is the oldest person to be elected president in the Philippines since the Second World War. Late last year he said he had tested negative for cancer, and he blamed his long exposure to the sun when the public noticed discolouration in his face.

The constitution provides for the public to be told of the state of health of a president, if serious. If a sitting president dies, is permanently disabled or removed through impeachment, the vice-president serves the remainder of a six-year, single term.

Mr Duterte is known for an unorthodox work schedule that typically starts in the mid-afternoon and can go on well beyond midnight.