Marcos says cough, cold ‘will not slow me down’

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was nursing a cough and cold while delivering a speech at an awarding ceremony for government officials, according to a 24 Oras report by Ivan Mayrina on Wednesday.

“I’m sorry, I have picked up what everybody else seems to have, which is a cough and a cold, but it will not slow me down,” he said.

Marcos personally handed out the Presidential Lingkod Bayan award, the Dangal ng Bayan award, and the PAGASA award during his attendance.

During his speech, Marcos said that the awardees were proof that people in civil service were not slow, grumpy or lazy.

“The quality of the work and the initiative that people have shown really belies the general image of the civil servant as being a bit of a drudge and being not terribly imaginative,” he said.

Marcos also reminded government employees regarding transparency and accountability for their work.

“Let us continue to live by our constitutional mandate that public office is a public trust,” he added. — Jiselle Anne C. Casucian/BM, GMA Integrated News