AN OFFICIAL said Tuesday there was nothing to worry about President Rodrigo Duterte’s health despite his problems with his spine.
“Nothing serious,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a text message.
During the Wallace Business Forum dinner in Malacañang Monday night, Duterte said his doctor advised him to undergo surgery to cure the slipped disc he acquired from a motorcycle accident 10 years ago.
“My doctor wanted to operate but my wife was a nurse and she used to work in the United States and she said there were many operations on the spine that went awry, that went wrong,” Duterte said.
“I cannot afford the operation [but] it’s not because I do not have the money. It’s because my wife said that when a nerve is cut you are dead forever.”
In 2014, then Davao City Mayor Duterte said he was not fit to run for President due to his injured spine that continued to give him backaches.
“If you guys see me always [in] a sad mode I am actually pushing a nerve here to relieve the pain,” Duterte said.
He said he was also suffering from migraine and Beurger’s disease that he acquired from smoking.
Despite his health condition, Duterte attended nine events and meetings including a National Security Council meeting from 2 p.m. up to midnight on Monday.
He was scheduled to leave at 4 p.m. on Tuesday for a two-day state visit in Cambodia at the invitation of Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni.
From Cambodia, he will proceed to Singapore for another two-day state visit at the invitation of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Before leaving for Cambodia, Duterte met with some of his Cabinet members and Le Luong Minh, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The Philippines will host the Asean Summit next year.