AN interagency committee composed of representatives from the House of Representatives, the Senate and Malacañang have an amusing job to do for President Marcos Jr.’s third State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.
That job is deciding where to seat First Lady Louise “Liza” Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte following the break-up of UniTeam, the ticket under which Duterte and President Marcos Jr. ran in the 2022 national elections.
“We will decide on that, the seating plan for the VIPs,” House Secretary General Reginald Velasco told reporters in a chance interview. “As of now, there’s no decision (yet).”
The First Lady and the Vice President were seated next to each other in Marcos’ SONA last year.
The Vice President, who has resigned from the Marcos cabinet as Education secretary and as co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), on Saturday, said she is not for or against the administration, belying the claim of former presidential spokesman Harry Roque that she is positioning herself as the leader of the opposition.
The First Lady, in an interview last April, admitted being hurt when the Vice President laughed off criticisms hurled against the President by her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The First Lady said the Vice President crossed the line when she laughed when her father called Marcos a drug addict during a prayer rally in Davao City, which the Vice President attended.
“Bad shot na iyan (VP) sa akin (She’s already a bad shot to me),” the President’s wife said then.
The PNP has already said it has not seen any document or a list that would show the Chief Executive is involved in illegal drugs.
It was observed during recent official functions, including departure ceremonies, that the First Lady would ignore the Vice President or avoid exchanging greetings with her, unlike in the past where they would sit together, chat, or even buss each other on the cheek.
The elder Duterte has been attacking the administration over different issues, including Charter change and the Congress’ move to strip the Office of the Vice President of its confidential and intelligence funds which lawmakers realigned to agencies at the forefront of protecting the country’s territorial integrity in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
The Vice President has said she and the President are “still friendly with each other on a personal level” even after she resigned from the Cabinet.
