“In other words, to him, it’s not a serious matter,” the spokesman said. “Because if it was serious, he always tells the public about it.”

Mr. Panelo said Mr. Duterte has been in Manila since Friday, and has spent the last two days with his family. Mr. Panelo said that when he asked the president about the rumors of a hospital visit, Mr. Duterte told him: “I neither confirm nor deny. You draw your own conclusions.”

Reports of poor health have followed Mr. Duterte for some time. He acknowledged in October that he made a secret visit to the hospital earlier that year for an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

The tests, according to the presidential palace, were routine as the leader has Barrett’s esophagus — a condition where cells grow abnormally in the esophagus and can sometimes develop into cancer.



Mr. Duterte is known to see doctors at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Manila, and some news outlets speculated that he was being treated there most recently after patients were quoted by local radio as saying the security there had been unusually tight over the weekend.

A change in Mr. Duterte’s complexion, which has noticeably darkened, has also fueled speculation of illness, though Mr. Duterte dismissed it as sunburn and the natural discoloration of aging.

According to Rappler, a local news outlet that has been monitoring Mr. Duterte’s public appearances, he has been suddenly absent from the public eye without an explanation, at least four other times.

There were rumors this month that Mr. Duterte was ill when he took several days off after an official visit to China, disappearing from April 29 until May 4. Twice in June 2017 he went unseen for several days, and once in February of that year.

