MANILA, Philippines – While analysts, critics, and concerned groups have started to assess his one-year performance as the country’s 16th President, Rodrigo Duterte will not make an evaluation of himself until he completes his six-year term and if he’s still alive by then.
This is what he told reporters on Wednesday, June 28, when he was asked on how he would assess his first year in office.
“Well, ako, I don’t make any assessment. I only make assessment after my term…It’s a roller coaster, actually…So it should be at the end of the ride,” Duterte said during a press briefing at the Clark Airbase in Angeles City, Pampanga where he attended the turnover ceremony on China’s military assistance to the Philippines.
“If I get to live, then I’d tell you. If I don’t exist anymore at that time, you make your own assessment. Just be fair,” he added.
This was not the first time that the 72-year-old leader talked about his mortality.
Last December, Duterte told a Filipino community at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that he wasn’t sure if he would still be alive until 2022.
“Matanda na ako [I’m already old]…This is my last hurrah. After this, 77, hindi ko nga malaman kung [I don’t know if] I would still be around ‘till the end of my term,” he said.
In February, he denied rumors that he was suffering from cancer. This month, he also dismissed claims that he was rushed to a hospital in San Juan City because of mild stroke.
Last year, before winning the presidential polls, Duterte admitted that he was suffering from four ailments but he said these “are not fatal” — acute bronchitis, Barrett’s esophagus, Buerguer’s disease, and pain caused by a slipped disc from a motorcycle accident that happened a decade ago. He also later complained of having daily migraines.
In February 2016, Duterte, then a presidential candidate and Davao mayor, was hospitalized due to acute bronchitis and migraine. “Oust me, good. Assassinate me, better. I have this migraine every day,” he later said.
Barrett’s esophagus is a complication of GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease in which the cells that make up the esophagus that were damaged by exposure to acid from the stomach begin to look like the cells that make up the intestines.
Smoking is among the risk factors for developing this ailment. The symptoms include chest pain, vomiting blood, having difficulty swallowing, and passing black, tarry, or bloody stools.
About his Buerguer’s disease, Duterte explained that he had acquired the ailment from smoking, which involves the constriction of blood vessels in the arms and legs, blocking blood flow that can lead to damaged or destroyed skin tissue in the arms and legs, particularly in the hands and feet.
Regarding his discomfort caused by his slipped disc, the President earlier said that “I have a lot of issues with my spinal…So that if you guys see me always with a sad mode, I am actually pushing a nerve here (referring to his habit of cupping his cheek) to relieve the pain.”
