Framers of Constitution say it's Duterte's duty to bare health status

It is President Rodrigo Duterte's duty to reveal the true condition of his health, two of the framers of the 1987 Constitution said on Friday.

Two members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission made the statement amid questions on Duterte's fitness to lead the country for the remainder of his term.

"People are anxious, people are uncertain about the health of the president. We are overwhelmed by this pandemic. It is a matter of duty on the part of the president to reveal his condition," commission member Felicitas Arroyo said at a virtual forum.

Christian Monsod, another member of the commission, said there has been no "sufficient disclosure" of Duterte's health.

"What we need is a medical expert opinion [from a] credible doctor who will tell the people, with the consent of the president, endorsed by the president, the real situation of his health," Monsod said.

Section 12, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution requires the disclosure of the state of the president's health in case of "serious illness."

Duterte said earlier this week that his doctor had advised him to stop drinking because his Barrett's esophagus was "nearing" stage one cancer.

His spokesman Harry Roque Jr. later claimed that Duterte just repeated what his doctor had told him "a long time ago." Roque said Duterte is "fit and healthy for a person his age."

Aside from this condition, Duterte, 75, has admitted to having gastroesophageal reflux disease, Buerger's disease, spinal issues, daily migraines, and myasthenia gravis.

The Supreme Court, however, dismissed a petition seeking the public disclosure of the president's health last May, saying that the petitioner's allegations of "serious illness" were "unsubstantiated."

The petitioner, a lawyer named Dino de Leon, has filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court has yet to act upon.

Monsod said the SC "overdeferred" to Duterte when it dismissed De Leon's petition.

"There's nothing in the minutes or in the letter of the Constitution that says that it's the president  who will decide whether the information should be released or not. There's nothing," he said.

Arroyo, for her part, added that it is important for calls for the disclosure of the president's health condition to be supported by the public.

"A lot has to do with the support of the public that should weigh behind and give gravitas to the case," she said.

Calls for Duterte to share complete details on his health condition came as another world leader, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who has longed suffered from ulcerative colitis, on Friday stepped down from his post due to health reasons. -MDM/NB, GMA News