If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it’s especially true with this photo posted by former vice president Jejomar Binay as rumors swirled about the health of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Early Sunday morning, April 11, Binay shared a photo of him doing his daily morning exercise, a longtime fitness practice for the 78-year-old politician. 

“Sa pandemyang ito, importanteng alagaan natin ang ating mga sarili. Wag natin kalimutan kumain ng maayos, magpa-araw at mag-exercise, kahit walking walking lang,” said Binay, who was wearing a jacket bearing the colors of the Philippine flag. 

(During this pandemic, it’s important that we take care of ourselves. Let’s not forget to eat right, soak up the sun, and do our exercise, even just walking around.)

Though Binay did not directly mention Duterte, the picture is an obvious jab at the man who had beaten him in the 2016 presidential race. 

Questions were raised about the true state of the President’s health after a nearly two-week absence from the public eye. 

In a bid to dispel the rumors of the President’s failing health, Duterte’s longtime aide Senator Bong Go posted a video, in the wee hours of Saturday, April 10, of the President briefly jogging in Malacañang. But critics were skeptical if the President was actually jogging or he was just posing for the camera.

A day later, Binay had a picture of himself doing his usual morning exercise jog. 

Photo from Bong Go’s Facebook Page

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Binay was the early survey frontrunner in the 2016 presidential elections – until he took a beating after the more than yearlong Senate probe into allegations of corruption and unexplained wealth against him during his time as Makati mayor. 

Duterte, then Davao City mayor, later emerged victorious in the presidential race with over 16 million votes. Binay, meanwhile, ended up finishing 4th with only 5.31 million votes, trailing behind Duterte, Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II, and Senator Grace Poe. 

Binay was the last among the defeated presidential candidates to congratulate the victor Duterte. 

Binay initially stepped away from the limelight after his first electoral loss in 3 decades. 

But he has since reemerged as an opposition figure against Duterte, whom Binay had called an “executioner”  in the final days of the 2016 campaign. 

Just recently, Binay, a former human rights lawyer, said lawyers are more scared now under the Duterte regime than they were under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. – Rappler.com