VP Sara to skip SONA anew

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte will not attend the fourth State of the Nation Address of President Marcos on July 28, according to a notice sent to the House leadership.

If she changes her mind, House secretary general Reginald Velasco said a reserved seat and designated holding room await the Vice President.

“We are not excluding the possibility that she will attend,” Velasco said. “There will be a seat reserved for her at the center of the House plenary gallery, the VIP gallery.”

Duterte skipped last year’s SONA, drawing flak for calling herself a “designated survivor.”

Marcos and Duterte’s relationship started souring in 2023, leading to the collapse of their alliance that won them the 2022 election.

On March 11, authorities arrested the Vice President’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and turned him over to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity stemming from his bloody drug war that claimed over 6,000 lives.

Protest

Progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) is calling for mass protests during Marcos’ SONA to mark his third year in office.

The group also welcomed UN special rapporteur Irene Khan’s report saying that the government’s efforts to improve the human rights situation in the country are “not enough to make a meaningful difference to the state of freedom of expression.”

Khan’s report echoed the demands of media and civil society groups to unblock websites, release detained journalists, reform and repeal outdated laws and end red-tagging practices, Bayan secretary general Raymond Palatino said.

Palatino criticized Marcos for refusing to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

While Marcos is trying to distance himself from his predecessor Duterte, Palatino said the President has done nothing in the past three years to repeal repressive laws. — Emmanuel Tupas