Duterte to Mar’s PR man: Stop spreading cancer ailment rumors

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Mayor Rodrigo Duterte warned Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II to stop one of the former interior secretary’s public relations men from spreading rumors that he is suffering from cancer of the throat.

Duterte denied having throat cancer that former journalist Philip Lustre Jr. said was the reason Duterte refused to seek the presidency in the May 2016 elections. 

The mayor blamed the camp of Roxas for spreading the throat cancer rumors. 

“If it is true that Philip Lustre Jr. is a PR of Roxas and he won’t stop what he is doing, then I will let the whole world know who really Mar Roxas is, don’t blame me,” Duterte said. 

The mayor hinted he could expose how the former Department of the Interior and Local Government chief reacted to the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City in November 2013. 

“Remember, I was already there on the second day of Yolanda, he will surely regret it,” Duterte said.