Marcos hits back: I think it’s the fentanyl

BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and VICTOR REYES

PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said use of the pain killer fentanyl could have affected the judgment of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who on Sunday called him a “drug addict” and said he had been included in the watch list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Marcos said Duterte’s doctors should take good care of him.

“I think it’s the fentanyl. Fentanyl is the strongest pain killer that you can buy. It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects, and PRRD (Duterte) has been taking the drug for a very long time now,” he said in a chance interview at the Maharlika Presidential Hangar at the Villamor Air Base before he left for his state visit to Vietnam,.

Duterte, during a prayer rally against efforts to amend the Constitution through people’s initiative, said PDEA showed him the watch list when he was still Davao City mayor years before he became president.

PDEA disputed Duterte’s claim.

“The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency categorically states that President Ferdinand R Marcos, Jr is not in its watch list, contrary to the statement of former President Rodrigo Duterte,” PDEA said in a statement.

Marcos said the former president has said five to six years ago that he had been taking fentanyl for a long time.

“After five, six years, it has to affect him kaya palagay ko, kaya nagkakaganyan. So, you know, I hope his doctors take better care of him than this (After five, six years, it has to affect him that’s why I think, it’s like that. So, you know, I hope his doctors take better care of him than this),” he added.

Duterte, when he was president, said he had been taking fentanyl due to body pains, particularly on his back, after a motorcycle accident. He said his doctors have advised him to undergo surgery to address back pains but partner, Honeylet Avacena who is a nurse, advised against it due to possible complications and a history of “operations for the spinal (that) went awry.”

He said that due to the pain, there was a time he took a lot of fentanyl, a potent pain medication used by cancer patients, which prompted his doctors to order him stop taking it. He said frequent use can lead to the