Duterte makes first public appearance after 2 weeks, telling those who want him dead to pray harder

The last time President Rodrigo Duterte was seen in public was on March 29. PHOTO: COURTESY OF SENATOR CHRISTOPHER GO

MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (April 12) made his first public appearance in two weeks, quashing wild rumours about his purported failing health and even untimely death.

He squarely addressed questions about his health.

"If you want me to die early, you must pray harder," he said, needling those spreading rumours that he had died in Singapore, where he was purportedly taken after a health scare.

He said he deliberately avoided appearing in public for two weeks to make fun of his detractors.

"I'm like a child that way. The more you provoke me, the more I tease you back," he said.

He said he was inside Malacanang, the sprawling compound that houses the president's office and residence, the whole time.

He said he was working there and, on some days after midnight, jogged, rode a motorcycle and played golf.

"I don't see anything wrong with riding a motorcycle at 2am. I'm not taking the people's time," he said.

Mr Duterte had been out of public view for so long that his mere appearance at his weekly televised address on Monday night was news in itself.

The last time the 76-year-old leader was seen in public was on March 29, when he was present to receive a shipment of a million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinovac.

He then took a break for Holy Week, the Christian observance leading up to Good Friday.

He was expected to resurface on April 7 for his weekly televised address. But that was abruptly cancelled following reports that over 100 of his bodyguards had tested positive for Covid-19.

The same day, his daughter, Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, confirmed that she had flown to Singapore a day earlier with her son, a nanny and a bodyguard. She declined to say why she had made the trip.

That sparked speculation that Mr Duterte himself could be in Singapore after suffering a mild stroke.

Purported photos of an air ambulance that supposedly flew him to Singapore surfaced, and the hashtag #nasaanangpangulo ("Where is the president?") trended on social media.

By Saturday, the nation was abuzz with rumours that he was dead.

"He is not sick," Mr Duterte's spokesman, Mr Harry Roque, said in a news briefing on Monday when asked if the government planned to issue a "medical bulletin" to dispel speculations about the president's health.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes, one of Mr Duterte's harshest critics, said in a post on Twitter that he was "not buying" into speculation that Mr Duterte was sick.

"He's been doing that for the past five years. He will disappear, then they'd float their own rumour. Then he will emerge like a conquering hero and burn all those who were taken for a ride," Mr Trillanes said.

"He's a narcissist," he added. "He craves for attention."

Mr Duterte presided over a meeting of his ministers overseeing the government's efforts to contain another coronavirus surge, far worse than what the Philippines experienced last year.

The government on Sunday lifted a lockdown that had kept a quarter of the nation's population - some 25 million - inside their homes for two months, even though the number of Covid-19 infections remained alarmingly high.

Health experts and data analysts warned that lifting strict quarantine restrictions this early could lead to another surge.

But Mr Duterte and his aides insisted that signs pointed to Covid-19 cases falling in the next two weeks.

The Philippines has been tallying some 10,000 daily cases on average since last week.

With over 876,000 infections and around 15,000 dead, the country has the second worst Covid-19 figures in South-east Asia, after Indonesia.

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