NEEDED: PROOF OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

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         The project of President Duterte to amend the Constitution to establish a federal form of government quickly mobilized supporters and sycophants eager to please so that the revision of the Charter is quite imminent.  Other sectors pulling for vested interests are also preparing amendment proposals so an open season on the Constitution is very likely despite statements from so-called guardians of the charter that the amendments will be limited to the form of government.

         With all the possibilities and driven by the embarrassment and nausea I go through every time I read news accounts and watch TV footage of the crass behavior and gutter mouthing of the present occupant of Malacanang, I strongly advocate that the Constitutional provisions on the Presidency be revised to require that candidates for presidents and vice-presidents, as part of their qualifications, be required to get expert and independent physical and mental health clearance, especially on the mental aspect which may not be readily recognized in the candidate's posing and appearance.

         The current predicaments of the country traceable to the gutter mind and mouth of the sitting president already pronounced psychotic by many or the possibility that we could have elected the much better choice, the late Miriam Defensor Santiago, only to have her die after weeks in office boldly underscores the importance of not taking the matter of presidential health for granted.

           The masses that comprise the great majority of our electorate do not have the capacity to discern for themselves the true state of physical and mental health of their would-be president and vice-president.  It ought to be a matter of right, consistent with the idea of democracy, for them to be informed of that starting like yesterday to give them a measure of assurance that whoever they elect as their president possesses that state of physical and mental health to adequately manage the demands and rigors of the Office.  Another crucial consideration now that we are in the deep shit, that we may choose a future president who will conduct himself according to norms of common decency and sanity befitting the Office and, equally important, as the personification of an entire nation.

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