by Azer Parrocha/PNA
Malacañang assured on Monday that President Rodrigo R. Duterte is in perfect shape despite experiencing a migraine and skipping two public engagements in Davao City on Friday (March 15).
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this assurance, noting the President quickly recovered after resting for three hours.
“He had a migraine. But after three hours of rest, he recovered and he went to work reading so many documents. He just stayed in the house,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
“He is okay. As I said, he concentrated on his work — the paper work, there are so many things to read and to study,” he added.
President Duterte missed the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to Davao Region farmers and a Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) campaign rally.
Panelo said the usual migraine affected the President every now and then but it was not a cause for concern.
He said the President is currently in Davao and has no engagements this week, at least as of posting time.
Earlier, former Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher “Bong” Go said that the President was “indisposed.”
The 73-year-old President previously admitted that he suffered from a spinal injury he sustained from a motorcycle incident years ago and bouts of migraine.
In October 2018, he bared that he underwent colonoscopy and endoscopy and that there were findings that his Barrett’s esophagus was “badly eroded” due to alcohol intake but was otherwise healthy.
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted on Dec. 16 to 19, 2018 showed that 66 percent of Filipinos are worried about the President’s health, an increase of 11 percent from Sept. 2018’s 55 percent.
However, Panelo has repeatedly assured there is no cause for concern about the President’s well-being since he is “conscientious” of his health.
Panelo said President Duterte puts a break to his activities if he feels his body is “not up to it”.
