Duterte makes first public appearance after 2 weeks, quashing rumours about his health
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (April 12) made his first public appearance in two weeks, quashing wild rumours about his purported failing health and even untimely death.
Mr Duterte presided over a meeting of his ministers overseeing the government’s efforts to contain another coronavirus surge, far worse than what the Philippines experienced last year.
The government on Sunday lifted a lockdown that had kept a quarter of the nation’s population – some 25 million – inside their homes for two months, even though the number of Covid-19 infections remained alarmingly high.
Health experts and data analysts warned that lifting strict quarantine restrictions this early could lead to another surge.
But Mr Duterte and his aides insisted that signs pointed to Covid-19 cases falling in the next two weeks.
The Philippines has been tallying some 10,000 daily cases on average since last week.
With over 876,000 infections and around 15,000 dead, the country has the second worst Covid-19 figures in South-east Asia, after Indonesia.
Mr Duterte had been out of public view for so long that his mere appearance at his weekly televised address on Monday night was news in itself.
The last time the 76-year-old leader was seen in public was on March 29, when he was present to receive a shipment of a million doses of a vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinovac.
He then took a break for the Holy Week.
He was expected to resurface on April 7 for his weekly televised address. But that was abruptly cancelled following reports that over 100 of his bodyguards had tested positive for Covid-19.
The same day, his daughter, Davao mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, confirmed that she had flown to Singapore a day earlier with her son, a nanny and a bodyguard. She declined to say why she had made the trip.
That sparked speculation that Mr Duterte himself could be in Singapore after suffering a mild stroke.
Purported photos of an air ambulance that supposedly flew him to Singapore surfaced, and the hashtag #nasaanangpangulo (Where is the president?) trended on social media.
By Saturday, the nation was abuzz with rumours that he was dead.
“He is not sick,” Mr Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said in a news briefing yesterday when asked if the government planned to issue a “medical bulletin” to dispel speculations about the president’s health.
“A medical bulletin is only given when the president is sick, and he is not sick,” said Mr Roque.
Asked if Mr Duterte flew to Singapore because of a health scare, Mr Roque replied: “He never left his residence in Malacanang (the presidential compound in Manila).”
Mr Roque also insisted that there was no need for Mr Duterte to hold an online briefing on Sunday to announce the lifting of the hard lockdown.
“That’s my job. That has always been my job,” said Mr Roque.
He added: “The president made all the decisions he needs to make… He doesn’t have to make a public show to prove he’s working. That’s not his style. He doesn’t have to brag in public to show he’s on top of the situation.”
Former senator Antonio Trillanes, one of Mr Duterte’s harshest critics, said in a post on Twitter that he was “not buying” into speculations that Mr Duterte was sick.
“He’s been doing that for the past five years. He will disappear, then they’d float their own rumour. Then he will emerge like a conquering hero and burn all those who were taken for a ride,” Mr Trillanes said.
“He’s a narcissist,” he added. “He craves for attention.”
Join ST’s Telegram channel here and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Source: Read Full Article
