THE statement from Malacañang on President Duterte’s condition and need for a rest was incredibly frustrating and rambling.

Instead of saying outright that the President is exhausted and weary from all his recent traveling (first to Tokyo for the enthronement of the new Japanese emperor and then to Bangkok for the 2019 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit of Leaders), and that he consequently needed to rest or take a brief leave, Palace communicators and spokesmen spun an elaborate spiel about the President being a workaholic, and how Asean leaders in Bangkok had remarked that President Duterte looked overworked.