AMID speculation that there is plot to unseat him, President Rodrigo Duterte seemed unfazed, as he admitted Monday that he has been suffering from several health problems.
"Oust me, good. Assassinate me, better. [Because] I have this migraine everyday. I had a bad sleep, the last one was this. And I have a lot of issues with my spinal," the President said at the Wallace Business Forum held at the Palace on Monday evening, December 12.
Duterte then revealed that he has to always push a nerve below his ears to somehow relieve the pain he is experiencing.
"My doctor would want to operate but you know, my wife was a nurse and she used to work in the United States, and she said, since a lot of operations for the spinal that went awry, that went wrong," Duterte said.
"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," he added.
The 71-year-old chief executive also said that there was a time when he was using two Fentanyl patches to make him feel better.
Fentanyl patch is a narcotic pain medicine used to treat severe chronic pain.
Duterte, however, said that his attending physician had advised him to stop using that because his cognitive ability would be affected.
"There was a time that I took two. But not no more because, of course, my doctor learned that I was using the whole patch because I felt better. When he knew it, he made me stop and he said, 'Stop it. The first thing that you would lose is your cognitive ability,'" Duterte said.
Duterte also shared that he has Barrett's esophagus, a condition in which the esophagus changes.
He added that he also has Buerger's disease, a rare disease of the arteries and veins in the arms and legs.
Despite his health problems, the President clarified that he has no cancer. (Sunnex)