Duterte denies claims he underwent heart surgery last May

On the heels of rumors that he was hospitalized last month, President Rodrigo Duterte finally addressed the issue and denied that he had undergone a heart surgery.

"Hindi… I’m not without —may sakit. Pero kung sabihin mo na na-operahan daw ako sa heart," Duterte said in an interview on Sonshine Media Network on Saturday.

"If there is something wrong in my heart, it cannot be a heart disease. It could only be that a wayward heart has so many hurts that it ceased to see the right," he said.

Late in May, Duterte was away from the public eye for several days, with one of his most recent public appearances on Election Day, May 13.

The Palace has since brushed off the rumors that the President was hospitalized at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan.

Malacañang then released photos of Duterte, along with his former Special Assistant Christopher "Bong" Go, with the daily broadsheets as "proof of life." —Ted Cordero/LBG, GMA News