‘… he says this is also the reason why he is beyond caring about whether he would be bashed for what he says…’

Willie Ong, the popular socmed celebrity who transformed his online medical advice presence into a major political following, is not well. His YouTube channel had close to 10 million subscribers and most of his videos with health advice would hit more than two million views.

He was beginning to become a household name when the lure of politics became too strong to resist.

He chose to run as vice president to Isko Moreno during the 2022 elections. He lost – when all data was showing that had he chosen to run for the Senate he would have topped the race or come in as number two.

He seemed to have retreated from public view for a while.

Now he is back, publicly declaring that he is battling abdominal cancer, being diagnosed with the disease at an advanced stage. The image of him I saw yesterday was of a thin Doc Willie, not as cheerful-looking but still with a thick lock of hair.

He had to fly abroad to be treated aggressively because his cancer was aggressive. He admitted on video to his followers that he did not know if he would live or die. But he says this is also the reason why he is beyond caring about whether he would be bashed for what he says, just as he was bashed when he ran for vice president, a bashing that led to depression and stress during and after the campaign that must have triggered his sarcoma.

And what he said in the video message he taped for his followers last September 11 was blunt: “Politicians in the Philippines are corrupt.

“We need good people to run – as senator, president, congressman.”

He continued: the Philippines is so rich. To politicians, you bribe the people. You give them money to vote for you. You make them look stupid. You want them stupid.”

This is the new Dr. Willie Ong, he said, the brave one who will say what has to be said.

People who come face-to-face with mortality often transform. In the case of Doc Willie, it has led him to speak from the heart without concern for the feelings of others, because he just doesn’t want to die and be seen as having lied to his followers.

I have never been a Doc Willie follower although I had been hearing a lot of things about him – overwhelmingly good – from close friends who were hoping to vote him into the Senate. But I am sad that he had to go through bashing just because he chose to offer himself to the people as a public servant.

What did I do to you, he asked a basher, unable to comprehend how thankless politics can be.

And now that he has shared with us his deepest and purest thoughts – of a man who is now sick not only of cancer but also of everything about our politics – the next question for his followers is: what do you do now?