MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said he expects to have a long life as he blasted anew communist leader Jose Ma. Sison for spreading an unverified report that he had fallen into coma.

“I don’t know what he means by comatose ako. Nasa kama lang ako. Comatose? Matagal pa ako,” Duterte said in a speech in Cebu.

Sison in a Facebook post Sunday claimed, based on unverified reports, that the President fell seriously ill recently.

Sison showed a photo of the President supposedly taken from a Lex Talionis event last August 18.

“Those who saw him reported that the darkness of his face had become aggravated from its appearance the other day and that his walk and handshake had become more unstable,” Sison said.

“The latest report (still to be verified or negated) is that Duterte has gone into coma since the afternoon or evening of today, Sunday, August 19,” he added.

But Duterte himself debunked Sison’s claim, going live on Facebook on Monday evening to show he was in in good health, and then gracing the League of Municipalities of the Philippines Visayas Island Cluster Conference in Cebu City on Tuesday where he spoke for almost two hours.

Questions on the health of the President, now 73, are being raised from time to time by his critics. But the Palace said there was no need for it to release a regular bulletin on the President’s health.

The President himself has raised the possibility of not ending his term, fueling speculations about his health.

• Duterte says he may not 'be around' till end of term

As he dismissed fresh rumors about his health, Duterte said he would slap Sison, his former university professor on political thought, if they “meet in hell.”

He also threatened to personally confront Sison, who has been in exile in The Netherlands for decades. He also described Sison as a spent force and a discredited leader.

“Kapag magpunta ako dyan, turista lang, galing ako Israel, tignan natin kung sinong comatose,” he said.

Duterte and Sison's ties soured after the President cancelled peace talks with the communists. The government is now seeking to hold localized peace talks with communist rebels, in what analysts said was an attempt by the government to make Sison irrelevant.