VICE President Sara Duterte will not attend President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month, which she did last year after she broke away from her alliance with the administration.
“We have received a letter from the office that she is not attending,” House Secretary General Reginald Velasco told reporters. “But we are not excluding the possibility that she will attend. So there will be a seat for her, reserved at the center of the VIP gallery.”
Velasco said the VP, impeached by the House, did not say why she was skipping the SONA for the second straight year. “None. There was no reason given. And, in fact, we didn’t really ask for any reason, right?” Velasco said.
“So far, she’s the only one who declined (to attend), right? The rest, we have received positive indications that they are all coming,” said the House official, who leads SONA preparations.
The VP is charged with culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes in the seven Articles of Impeachment sent to the Senate.
Velasco said the House will still designate a holding room for the vice president and her staff, like it did in the past, just to be prepared in case she changes her mind.
The Office of the Vice President refused to confirm that Sara will snub the President’s SONA anew, saying the media should secure a copy of her letter to the House through the Office of the Secretary General “since SecGen Reggie Velasco has already announced it.”
The vice president skipped the SONA last year after she resigned from the Cabinet as education secretary and appointed herself the “designated survivor,” eliciting criticisms from administration allies.
In the United States, a “designated survivor” or successor is an official in the presidential line of succession who is kept at a separate location to ensure that someone will take over the presidency in case the president and other high-ranking officials, who are gathered together, are killed.
Under the Philippine Constitution, the line of presidential succession follows this order: President, then the Vice President, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House.
