President Rodrigo Duterte shot down communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison’s claim that he had fallen into a coma, by appearing in a Facebook live video on Monday evening.
In a five-minute video posted by Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Duterte told Sison that he was “alive” and “fairly healthy.”
The President even bragged that he was having dinner with a “beautiful lady” called Vernice.
“I’m alive, fairly healthy and having dinner with the beautiful lady from Davao. She’s Vernice. Only from Harvard.
Babalik iyan [She’ll return there]. I invited her to discuss many things along the way when she comes back,” Duterte said in the Facebook live video using Go’s account.
The 73-year-old Duterte made the statement after Sison spread rumors that the former has been comatose “since the afternoon or evening of Sunday, August 19.”
Sison, in a Facebook post on Sunday, alleged that the President appeared to be sick when the latter attended the national conference of the San Beda Law fraternity Lex Talionis in Davao City on Saturday night, August 18.
Quoting guests at the event, he said the darkness of Duterte’s face “had become aggravated from its appearance the other day” and that his walk and handshake “had become more unstable.”
Duterte turned the tables on Sison, saying it was the communist leader who is “in and out of the hospital” in The Netherlands, where he is currently on self-exile.
Duterte added that he was willing to accommodate Sison, if the communist leader wishes to return to the Philippines.
He, however, said he would send Sison to the national penitentiary New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City, where
he would have enough space and plenty of company.
The President said he wanted Sison to be alive for another 1,000 years, just like a guy in the Bible “who has been walking around the planet earth and he is not dying.”
He was referring to the Wandering Jew, a legendary character who was doomed to walk on earth until the end of the world because he taunted Jesus.
“Joma, ang wish ko sa buhay, maski na wala ka ng silbi sa mundong ito, mabubuhay ka pa rin ng mga 1,000 years para ikot ng ikot ka na dito sa mundo [Joma, my wish in life, even if you’re worthless in this world, is for you to live a thousand years and roam the planet]” Duterte said.
In a statement, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio questioned the mental state of Sison, whose claim about a “dying” President was “not rational.”
The communist leader said it looked like President Duterte would live long enough to stand trial before the International Criminal Court, which opened in February a preliminary inquiry into unexplained killings being linked to the government’s war on drugs.
This was not the first time that Duterte’s health was brought into question.
The President admitted to suffering from various ailments, including Barrett’s esophagus, which impacts his throat, and Buerger’s disease, caused by heavy smoking in his younger days.
In June, the President said he threw up during a flight from Seoul, South Korea, because of migraine.
Malacañang, however, dismissed the ailments as nothing serious.
With reports DEMPSEY REYES