Mad, mad world

It's amusing to see the camps of the ex-besties daring each other to have their heads examined, and to undergo follicle drug testing.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

They should all go ahead and take the test, and make a full public disclosure of the results.

People have always wanted top public officials to disclose their health status, both physiological and mental.

Some Philippine presidents have been open about their physiological health condition. But because such matters can impact political fortunes, most have not been forthcoming, especially during election campaigns, when such information can affect voter preferences.

The first Ferdinand Marcos kept his systemic lupus erythematosus and regular kidney dialysis a national security secret. Today, while SLE still has no cure, there are treatments available for the symptoms, so it may no longer warrant that kind of secrecy.

In 2002, Bongbong Marcos publicly admitted for the first time that he donated a kidney to his father in 1983.

Resistance to public disclosure is greater for the state of mental health and for sexually transmitted diseases.

Mental health issues have also been used to denigrate political aspirations, although the tack doesn't seem to work. Miriam Defensor Santiago laughed off descriptions of her as "brain-damaged" ("Brenda daw ako!" she would tell journalists with a chuckle). In 2010, Noynoy Aquino shrugged off rumors about his mental health problems, winning the presidency by a landslide.