The Marcos administration has signaled it will comply with a Supreme Court directive requiring President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Executive Secretary Ralph Recto to submit a comment on a petition demanding the public release of the president’s medical records.
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro confirmed the government’s position during a press briefing Thursday. “If that is the order of the Supreme Court, we will follow. A comment will be made,” she said in Filipino, adding: “Soon as there is a comment, we will immediately release it.”
The petition was filed by four individuals — Pantaleon Alvarez, Virgilio Garcia, Juan Raña, and Raymundo Junia — who argue that the president’s physical and mental condition is a matter of public interest, particularly given the economic and humanitarian pressures the Philippines is facing amid the ongoing Middle East crisis.
Through a writ of mandamus, the petitioners are seeking to compel Marcos to undergo physical and mental health examinations, including a hair follicle drug test, and to make those results available to the public. The move is meant to establish, on the record, whether the president remains fit to carry out his constitutional duties.
The legal basis cited is Section 12, Article VII of the Constitution, which obligates public disclosure of the president’s health in cases of serious illness.
Marcos was diagnosed with diverticulitis in January, a condition that led him to reduce his public engagements for a period. He has since declared himself fully recovered, stating there are no longer any restrictions on his activities or diet.
The president has pushed back sharply against persistent speculation about his health, directly labeling those spreading unverified reports as dishonest. “So, from now on, those people who told you that I’m sick, that I’m disabled, they are all liars. Everything they say is a lie. So, don’t believe whoever those people are. Now you know who the liars are and who is telling the truth,” he said.
