At the rate he is concocting tall tales about President Rodrigo Duterte, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria Sison, he will soon say (the President) is not human but an alien in the form of Rodrigo Duterte,” Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in a statement.

The President’s daughter said Sison sent her a few years ago chocolates and a note containing a message that was “rational and pleasant” in contrast to his recent social media posts claiming Mr. Duterte had lapsed into coma.

“His recent Facebook posts about the dying PRD [President Rodrigo Duterte] is not rational which made me think if it was him or his caretaker who posted it,” she added.

A post in Sison’s social media page last 19 August showed a photo of Mr. Duterte during the national conference of Lex Talionis with Sison insinuating that those who saw the President “reported that the darkness of his face had become aggravated from its appearance the other day and that his walk and handshake had become more unstable.”

“The latest report (still to be verified or negated) is that Duterte has gone into coma since the afternoon or evening of today, Sunday, 19 August. The report is still being verified by the press from the Palace. People are awaiting the personal appearance of Duterte and medical bulletin from his office,” Sison claimed.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque denied Sison’s claims, saying the President was in the pink of health.

Roque also advised those spreading rumors and wishing ill on Mr. Duterte to “hang themselves.”

Roque said he was with Duterte during a convention of local chief executives last Tuesday in Cebu City where the President spoke for around two hours, one of his longest speeches in recent days.

“He was in good shape and in high spirits during the event,” Roque said of Mr. Duterte.

“Yesterday we also saw him in Cebu healthy and in a joking mood,” Roque said.

“My suggestion to those who wish him ill is that they hang themselves because what they hope for will not happen,” he said.

He added Duterte being a lawyer is aware of a constitutional requirement to inform the public if he has a serious medical condition.

To disprove Sison’s claim, Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go took a video of Mr. Duterte on Monday night on Facebook Live showing him having a dinner with Frances Veronica “Vernice” Victorio, a former commissioner of the Climate Change Commission.

During his video appearance, Mr. Duterte shot back at Sison, saying the communist leader was the one who was sick and was abusing the privileges allegedly given to him by The Netherlands where he has been seeking asylum as a political refugee since 1987.

“You’re the one in comatose. You are sick,” Mr. Duterte told Sison.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sison denied claiming his posts were true and that he cautioned his followers that the report was subject to verification or negation by the public appearance of Duterte and by a credible medical bulletin.

“I never claimed these to be certainly true but I cautioned the readers of my Facebook Timeline that the reports are subject to verification or negation by the public appearance of Duterte and by credible medical bulletin,” he said.

Sison, however, said he will not apologize for his blunder.

“It was not fake news because the people around him, or some of the people around him, were surprised that he was very much unavailable,” said Sison in a television interview on Wednesday morning.

“Even some of them tried to contact him on Sunday so they started to guess, that for some serious reason, because of his health condition, Duterte had become indisposed,” he added.

But even with the President already seen in public, Sison said he will not backtrack on his “cautious and well-qualified statement” and that he hopes Duterte “alive beyond 2022” so he can be held accountable for his alleged crimes before the International Criminal Court.

Sison also reiterated that the President’s health is of public interest and that a probe must be done to let the public know about his true physical and mental states.

“I was saying that probably the press or his doctors, the press will be able to find out what is happening, or he himself will have to appear, or his doctors would have to put out a medical bulletin,” he said.