Malacañang said Friday it is Vice President Sara Duterte’s choice if she prefers not to attend the fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. next month.
“Last year, hindi rin naman din po siya dumating. At sa ating pagkakaalam, siya po ay um-attend sa isang kasalan. So, kung hindi po siya a-attend ngayon, kahit siya po ay inimbita bilang Bise Presidente, again, choice niya po iyon,” Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro said in a briefing.
(Last year, she also did not attend the SONA. She attended a wedding. So, if she will not attend the SONA this year, even if she’s invited, that’s her choice.)
“At kung hindi niya po maririnig ang mga programa at kung ano po ang naging trabaho ng gobyerno at ni Pangulong Marcos Jr., hindi po na siguro natin kasalanan iyon. It’s her choice,” she added.
(If she won’t be able to hear the programs and the work done by the government and President Marcos Jr., that’s not our fault. It’s her choice.)
Duterte will not be attending the fourth SONA of the President on July 28, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said Thursday.
“We received this note [from her office] that she won’t be attending this SONA,” Velasco told reporters.
Nonetheless, Velasco said the House remains prepared to receive the Vice President should she change her mind.
He said that aside from a reserved seat, there will be a designated holding room for the Vice President and her immediate staff since she is considered as an institutional guest alongside heads of government agencies and justices of the Supreme Court.
When she announced last year that she would not attend Marcos’ third SONA, Duterte said she was appointing herself as the designated survivor.
Marcos and Duterte were running mates in the 2022 national elections, campaigning on a message of unity across the country.
Their relationship, however, has gone sour following investigations by the House of Representatives into the war on drugs under the administration of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, as well as the handling of confidential funds by offices under her leadership.
In June 2024, the Vice President announced her resignation as education secretary and as vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
She now faces an impeachment trial in the Senate, which is expected to begin after the 20th Congress opens in July. — VDV, GMA Integrated News
