MANILA: Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte played down concern about his health on Monday after the firebrand leader announced he is suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disorder.
Duterte, who has quipped that he might not live out a six-year term that ends in 2022, told members of the Filipino community in Russia at the weekend that he has a rare autoimmune neuromuscular disease that is causing one of his eyelids to droop.
News of the 74-year-old leader’s latest condition comes on top of back problems, migraines, a throat illness and another disease that affects the circulation.
“He has localized ocular myasthenia. He had been worked up on this and it has not progressed, it remained localized,” said a close Duterte aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go.
The president has had the condition for a long time, Go told Reuters, although Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, told a news conference he only became aware of Duterte’s disorder after he mentioned it on Saturday.
“Nothing serious,” Go said, adding the president was “conscious of his health”.
Duterte’s ailments were to be expected because of his age, but they have not stopped his work and would not be a political issue, said Earl Parreno of the Institute of Political and Electoral Reforms.
Since his 2016 election, Duterte’s popularity remains at a level that other politicians would “die for”, Parreno said.
With an approval rating of about 80% and a super-majority in Congress, there is little prospect of an opposition challenge to his authority on health or any other grounds.
Opposition politicians contacted by Reuters declined or did not respond to request for comment on the health issue.
