By Jelly Musico – PNA
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he paid a visit to a hospital for blood testing before gracing the 85th anniversary celebration of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.
While addressing the DOLE officials and personnel, Duterte removed the cotton patch from his arm and showed it to the audience.
“Eh ako rin eh galing nga sa ospital. Kinunan ako ng dugo. Iyang media magtatanong naman ang sakit ko. Well, I’ll give you an idea. Tanggalin ko na lang ‘to. Iyan, may dugo kunti. Pero pagtusok nila sa syringe, kukunan ako ng dugo, walang lalabas, puro hangin (I also came from hospital for blood test. The media will ask again what my illness is. Well, I’ll give you an idea. I will remove this. It has little blood. When they injected syringe, they will extract blood, nothing came out, only air),” Duterte said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
In an ambush media interview, Duterte did not elaborate on his medical checkup.
“I’ll explain to you. Mahaba ‘to. (It will take time),” he said. “It’s a thing that we do every halos lahat (almost everybody).”
Duterte also advised reporters to ask his doctor why he had to undergo blood test.
Former Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher “Bong” Go, who was with Duterte, said the blood test was part of Duterte’s regular medical checkup.
“Ordinary lang po. Parati siyang nagpapakuha to check kung normal ang blood niya (That’s ordinary. He always undergo test to check if his blood is normal),” Go said in a separate media interview.
“At his age naman, kahit ako nagpapa-blood chem ako regularly. Si Pangulo quarterly din po nagpapa-blood chem (At his age, even me, I undergo blood chemistry regularly. President also does quarterly blood chem,” he added.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo also said the public should not worry, saying it was a regular blood test.
“Regular nga eh, it means kasama sa regular checkup (That’s regular. It means part of regular checkup), Panelo said.
