House official: VP won’t be attending President’s 4th Sona
Just like she did last year, Vice President Sara Duterte will not be attending the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Marcos on July 28, House of Representatives Secretary General Reginald Velasco said on Thursday.
According to Velasco, they received a letter from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) informing them that Duterte will not be present when Mr. Marcos makes his fourth annual address before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives. This was shortly after invitations to the event were sent out to government officials and other dignitaries.
Despite this, Velasco said they would go on with their preparations, including reserving a holding room for Duterte, in case she changes her mind.
“[We] are not excluding the possibility that she will attend. So there will be a seat for her reserved at the center of the gallery, the VIP gallery […], in fact we will designate a holding room for our Vice President and her staff, as we have done in the past,” Velasco said during a press briefing at the Batasang Pambansa complex.
Sole absentee so far
The House official added that Duterte’s office did not state the reason for her absence.
“So far, she’s the only one who has declined. All the rest, we have received positive indications that they are all coming,” Velasco said.
Duterte’s relationship with Mr. Marcos started to sour after her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, called her former running mate in the 2022 national elections an addict and urged him to resign early last year. The split between the two political families further widened after Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and transfer to The Hague in March to face the International Criminal Court where he is facing charges over the thousands of killings in his drug war.
Controversial remark
This will mark the second time Duterte will be skipping the Sona. Last year, she stirred controversy by saying she would not attend as she was appointing herself the “designated survivor.”
In the United States, the term refers to a government official who skips the President’s State of the Union Address to ensure there will be a successor should there be an event that wipes out everyone in the presidential line of succession.
Lawmakers had called out Duterte then, saying her remark was done in poor taste. They also pointed out that there was no such thing as a designated survivor under the 1987 Constitution.
The House is currently in the thick of preparations for the Sona, which takes place after the House and the Senate of the 20th Congress open their respective first regular sessions.
Earlier, officials from security establishments such as the Presidential Security Command (PSC) and the Philippine National Police checked the facilities inside the Batasang Pambansa complex and the House building itself.
Velasco said this was part of security measures for the event. “[The PSC], PNP, [and] Metropolitan Manila Development Authority are part of the preparations because of the traffic management in and outside Congress. It’s a joint collaboration,” he added.
