Questions concerning the health of President Noynoy Aquino come up from time to time, especially when he starts missing important meetings or when he suffers fits of coughing during public speaking engagements, a phenomenon that is becoming more the rule rather than the exception. Unlike his love life, the lack of which Aquino jokes about every now and then, the health of a President is no laughing matter.

Who the bachelor President is currently dating, after all, is of little concern to anyone outside perhaps of his family. However, Article VII, Section 12 of the Constitution states clearly: “In case of serious illness of the President, the public shall be informed of the state of his health.”

Recently, Aquino failed to make a scheduled appointment during his visit to Australia and New Zealand, allegedly because of a bum stomach. Upon his return to Manila, he had to cancel another meeting, this time with the visiting head of the International Monetary Fund, because of a reported case of allergies.

Reports of Aquino's coughing and sneezing are also becoming more common, so much so that they are becoming as much a part of Aquino's speaking repertoire as the text jokes that he supposedly gets – and gleefully relates to his audiences. Only last weekend, during a forum attended by media owners and executives, Aquino was once again in fine fighting (and coughing) mode.

His speech about what ails the press was punctuated not so much by applause from the assembly – which once again got an earful from Aquino about the supposed responsibility of media to support government – but by coughing and sneezing. A helpful palace spokesman explained that Aquino had not yet recovered from his bout with the flu and the allergies that he ignored so that he could attend the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh.

Meanwhile, both Aquino's health secretary and an official of the Philippine Medical Association advised the President to take better care of his health. Health Secretary Enrique Ona suggested that Aquino should vacation more often because “his health is the concern of the whole country."

The doctorly advice was echoed by PMA vice president Leo Olarte, who said Aquino “should always be in tip-top condition so that he could attend to the people’s needs more.” Aquino, Olarte said, should exercise daily, eat a balanced diet, drink moderately “in case he drinks” and sleep at least eight hours a day “if there is an opportunity.”

Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also joined in the calls for Aquino to mind his health, albeit in an entirely different context. Marcos, who is probably still smarting from the passage of the new “sin tax” measure that he believes will ruin the livelihood of his tobacco-growing constituents in the Ilocos Region, advised Aquino to quit smoking if the administration truly has the health of smokers in mind.

“He was told by his doctor to quit smoking, and since his administration wants to reduce smoking in the country by imposing higher taxes on tobacco products, why not start [with] him?” Marcos said. “It's difficult for his government to say that it wants to reduce smoking and he still smokes. Maybe he should quit.”
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Aquino and his spokesmen routinely downplay talk about the poor health of the President. And they defend Aquino's smoking as something he needs to do in order to relieve the stress of his difficult job.

But while the palace is always quick to explain why Aquino is otherwise incapable of making appointments due to supposed illness and to declare what ails him at the moment, there has never been a real medical bulletin released by Malacanang on the state of the President's health. Even calls for Aquino to undergo an executive check-up are brushed aside by his spokesmen as unnecessary, even if no one outside of the palace truly knows what the President is sick of when he takes an emergency sick leave.

As for Aquino's smoking, the President and his spokesmen keep telling us that he needs to light up because his job is so stressful. Not one of them mentions the fact that Aquino has been known to be a nicotine addict even while he was a congressman and a senator, when his work was a lot lighter and less stressful.

As for going on vacation, as Ona suggests, Aquino himself has repeatedly complained that he has had no time to do so since becoming President. However, reports that Aquino keeps late nights carousing with select friends and friendly businessmen continue to leak out from loose-lipped palace cronies, who tell tales of all-night karaoke sessions with the vacation-starved Chief Executive.

If we had a Freedom of Information law, it's possible that the public could demand that Aquino declare the true state of his health, of course. But since that law doesn't seem to have a chance of getting passed soon, we can only await word about Aquino's medical condition from Doctors Lacierda and Valte, who, as far as we know, are not licensed to practice medicine anywhere.

And this situation, regardless of what the Constitution says, looks like it will continue indefinitely. And no one will ever know how sick – or well – Aquino truly is.*