MANILA, Philippines – House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said on Thursday, June 19, that Vice President Sara Duterte, who has a pending impeachment trial at the Senate, will not attend President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28.

“We have received a letter from the office that she is not attending. 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.

“If she decides to come, there will be a seat for her and her immediate staff. In fact, we will designate a holding room for our Vice President and her staff, as we have done in the past,” she added.

Duterte first skipped Marcos’ SONA in 2024, weeks after she resigned from Marcos’ Cabinet.

“I am appointing myself as the designated survivor,” she had quipped last year, when asked why she was not going to the SONA, even though there’s no such rule in the Philippines. In the United States, the role is assigned to a Cabinet member who is brought to a secure location while the President delivers the State of the Union Address before Congress.

Duterte’s controversial comment was among the instances cited by the House when it impeached the Vice President in February this year over her alleged efforts to destabilize the government.

“A simple perusal of her media and public pronouncements and appearances readily produces innumerable instances when she has actively sowed unrest and/or attacked the authority of the current administration and the President,” the complaint read, referring to her remarks.

She was impeached on the grounds of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.

She is also accused of misusing confidential funds, bribing government officials, amassing unexplained wealth, playing a role in the extrajudicial killings in Davao City, and plotting to assassinate President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Her trial at the Senate has stalled since February, with its future uncertain after the impeachment court remanded the complaint to the House to address allegations that the impeachment proceedings were unconstitutional.

Duterte has denied allegations against her in broad strokes, and insisted she is being politically persecuted. – Rappler.com