'Work from home' raises questions in Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is well known for his strongman persona.

His nickname is "The Punisher" on account of a generally held observation that he pummels wrongdoing.

However, since coming to control in 2016 he has been hounded by rumors about his health.

Concern was raised again this week after his representative reported the president was taking three days' "rest".

Salvador Panelo later explained that the 74-year-old would not be on leave, however, he would work from his home in the southern city, Davao.

So are the ongoing health concerns making Filipinos question his strongman status? What's more, what might happen would he say he was not fit to lead the nation?

When asked by BBC News for what valid reason the president was telecommuting this week, Panelo said he "needs to have fewer interruptions… he needs to have some rest as well".

"In the event that he's working in the Malacanang [presidential palace], such huge numbers of individuals need to converse with him," Panelo included.

Yet, gossipy tidbits about President Duterte's wellbeing have whirled since he got down to business in June 2016, driven by his notoriety for once in a while avoiding official occasions and gatherings.

A year ago it was uncovered that specialists had discovered a suspicious development inside  Duterte during an endoscopy.

"I will let you know whether it's malignant growth," Duterte said at the time. Test outcomes later found that the development was benevolent.

During a visit to Russia toward the beginning of October, the president told a social affair of Filipino ostracizes that he was experiencing myasthenia gravis, an uncommon immune system infection that, as indicated by the president, makes one of his eyelids hang.

Weeks after the fact  Duterte tumbled from a cruiser and hurt his back after a late-night ride around the royal residence grounds in Manila.

"Terrible torment" from the mishap constrained him to slice short an official excursion to Japan, as per his most-confided in helper, Senator Bong Go.

Duterte was envisioned at the time inclining toward a mobile stick close by his little girl Sara and a concerned-looking Senator Go.

Panelo says that  Duterte has recuperated from the mishap. He said his wellbeing is "great," including that the president looks "extremely ordinary, he is strolling energetically and jabbering".

Be that as it may, recordings circled via web-based networking media of the president seeming uneven on his feet before the mishap.

During his third "Condition of the Nation" address in 2018, I saw that  Duterte showed up more delicate than expected, and his discourse was less pugnacious than in earlier years.

He, for the most part, adhered to the content, as opposed to releasing his standard blazing promotion libs, and when he completed the discourse he seemed to clutch the divider as he left the stage.

Duterte's internal circle has normally disproved cases that he skips gatherings as a result of sick wellbeing.

In November 2018,  Panelo said the president had missed four Association of South East Asian Nations gatherings in Singapore since he needed to take "control rests".

A week ago the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, Teddy Locsin Jr, even became involved straight on Twitter after he swore at a writer for pointing out the president's nonattendance from another Asean occasion, this time in Thailand.