President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday admitted that he sought a second opinion at Cardinal Santos on Wednesday after undergoing endoscopy and colonoscopy three weeks ago.
Duterte contradicted an earlier statement of his spokesman, Harry Roque, who denied the President was absent from an engagement Wednesday evening because he went to the said hospital.
“Three weeks ago I had my endoscopy and colonoscopy. I was about to have a Cabinet meeting [Wednesday] but [based on] the reading on my medical procedures, somebody advised my doctor to repeat and get some samples there for both (colonoscopy and endoscopy). So I stayed there for one hour in Cardinal Santos,” the President said yesterday.
READ: Duterte: I've undergone colonoscopy
“If it’s cancer, it’s cancer. If it’s third stage, no more treatment. I will no longer prolong my agony in the office,” Duterte said.
Earlier in the day, Roque said Duterte decided to take a “day-off” on Wednesday when he had been expected to grace the turnover ceremony of a P5-billion check by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
“There is a lot of wishful thinking. They should be ashamed for wishing the President ill,” Roque said. “The more they wish him ill, the stronger [he] gets. Maybe they should reverse their wishes.”
Roque said he once looked into Duterte’s collar for marks of dialysis procedures, catching the President off guard.
“They told me before he underwent dialysis. You know what I did? I peeked into his collar. He replied, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m looking for marks of dialysis.’ But there was none,” Roque said.
“Please trust. If he has a serious illness, the President will know. He’s a lawyer, he knows his constitutional obligation. If there’s a ground to release it, he will. But for the time being, let’s continue to treat every medical record as confidential.”
Last year, in one of his speaking engagement, Duterte said that he has been experiencing migraines and back pains caused by problems with his spine.
He also admitted having Buerger’s disease which causes blockages in the blood vessels—a disease he acquired from excessive smoking during his youth.
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