Duterte reveals health problems, reiterates he has no cancer

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night admitted that he has several health problems.

"I have this migraine everyday," Duterte told guests at the Wallace Business Forum in Malacañang, his fourth speaking engagement open to the media on Monday.

"I had a bad sleep, the last one was this. And I hit the…I have a lot of issues with my spinal. My doctor would want to operate but you know my wife was a nurse and she used to work in the States, United States, and she said there's a lot of operations in the spinal that went awry, that went wrong," he added.

Duterte then shared how he combats the pain by pushing a nerve just below his ear. He also disclosed that he used to take Fentanyl, which is used to treat patients with chronic pain or manage pain after surgery.

"I cannot afford the operation, it’s not because I do not have the money. I have the money to pay for it. It’s because my wife said that when — nerve cut is, you are dead forever. So those are the issues that I cannot decide by myself because I’m married to someone says that I should not have it," he said. 

"And I used to press something here. Fentanyl, it’s a pain killer. It’s being used by patients with cancer. I was only given a fourth of that square thing," he added.

Duterte also said that there was a time that doubled his prescribed medication because it made him feel better, but was stopped when his doctor found out about it.

"When he knew it, he made me stop and he said, 'Stop it. The first thing that you would lose is your cognitive ability.' 'And if you are noticing it', he said, 'Because you are, you know, abusing the drug,'" Duterte said. 

While he revealed he has Barrett's esophagus and Buerger's disease, Duterte denied that he had cancer.

"I have, might as well tell you about my medical history. Don’t believe in cancer," he said.

Barrett's esophagus, according to Mayo Clinic "is associated with an increased risk of developing esophageal cancer."

Buerger's disease, meanwhile, "is a rare disease of the arteries and veins in the arms and legs."

Later in the forum, a businessman recommended acupuncture to Duterte to stop the pain.

"Somebody advised me to consider it, I will. And the thick paper, I said, 'That's why I hired the bright guys to read it for me. [Finance Secretary] Sonny [Dominguez] and the ICT secretary [Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo Salalima]. They will make the recommendations," Duterte said. —ALG, GMA News