Reports said the lawmaker, who has been conspicuously absent from the Senate for a month, is sick but his staff refused to make any comment.
Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, the senator’s son, admitted that his father is sick but denied that it was cancer.
"He’s on sick leave," he said. "It’s true that he has lost weight and he’s not as strong as he used to be. But it’s definitely not cancer."
The younger Cayetano said the same rumor was floated last year and that he believes it is related to the move to recall Taguig Mayor Sigfrido "Freddie" Tinga, which he has fully supported.
Last Sept. 1, supporters of Tinga barricaded the IMP Sea Breeze Resort in Barangay Hagonoy, where the Preparatory Recall Assembly was being held, to protest the plan to install his father as Senate President, Rep. Cayetano added.
However, Ana Santos, Taguig municipal information officer, denied that the Tingas were behind the supposed rumor that Senator Cayetano is sick with cancer.
"(The Tingas) are not spreading such thing," she said. "That’s about illness. Who will be happy that a person would get sick?"
Last week, 84 members of the Preparatory Recall Assembly called for a recall election to unseat Tinga.
Officials of the town’s 18 barangays, which comprise the assembly, have charged Tinga with nepotism, corruption, and demolition of infrastructure projects, among others.
Rep. Cayetano and Tinga have been at odds over government projects in Taguig since early this year.– Nikko Dizon, Sammy Santos