Online speculation that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had been admitted to St. Luke’s Medical Center was shot down Saturday by a senior communications official, who said the President was in a closed-door meeting at the time the claims were circulating.
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro told reporters via text message that Marcos was meeting with the Presidential Management Staff on the morning of February 28. “The President was in a private meeting with PMS this morning. He is well, healthy, and working even on a Saturday,” she said.
Castro offered no details about the substance of the meeting but made clear the President was engaged in official business.
The denials come roughly a month after Marcos publicly disclosed a diagnosis of diverticulitis, a condition involving inflammation of small pouches that can develop along the digestive tract. That announcement was followed by a roughly two-week pullback from public-facing engagements as he recovered — a period during which Malacañang similarly insisted he remained active in overseeing government operations.
Castro’s statement did not address why the hospitalization rumors gained traction or where they originated.
