Malacañang plans to hold live press briefings with President Rodrigo Duterte to erase doubts the Chief Executive is seriously ill.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the announcement on Thursday due to speculation over Duterte’s health. Duterte had a raspy voice while he was delivering his taped public address last Tuesday.
“We’re talking about it,” Roque said in a virtual Palace briefing.
He said should Duterte agree to hold live press briefings with reporters, it would most likely be done virtually to reduce his chances of contracting the coronavirus disease 2019.
“It’s speculative. Let’s see first if a press briefing will take place, and if it does, it will have to be similar to what we’re having right now,” Roque said.
He made his statement even as the Supreme Court was again urged to reconsider its decision dismissing a petition seeking to compel Malacanang to make public Duterte’s medical records, citing his admission that his Barrett esophagus was nearing stage-one cancer.
In a new manifestation dated Aug. 26, lawyer Dino De Leon pressed the high court to reverse its decision rejecting his plea to release the President’s medical records and to set the case for oral arguments.
He cited Duterte’s recent admission that his Barrett esophagus, a disease involving the tissue in the esophagus, was nearing stage-one cancer as more than enough reason for the high court to give due course to his plea.
Roque denied that Duterte was sick, saying he was healthy and fit to work.
He said Duterte only repeated what his doctor had told him a “long time ago” when he disclosed to the public that his Barrett’s esophagus was “nearing stage-one cancer.”
“He’s clean-living, no more smoking, no drinking alcohol as advised by his doctors,” Roque said.
Apart from Barrett’s esophagus, the President had previously admittedly suffering other ailments such as Buerger’s disease or the inflammation of blood vessels caused by his past smoking habit.
“The President listened to the advice of his doctor. He stopped drinking, so now he is in good condition,” Roque said.