VP Sara Duterte will not attend SONA, says she'll be the 'designated survivor'

Vice President Sara Duterte said she will not attend President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.

During an interview with the press at the inauguration of the Child and Adolescent Neurodevelopment Center at a hospital in Davao City on Thursday, July 11, Duterte said that she is also appointing herself as the "designated survivor."

"I will not attend the SONA... I am appointing myself as the designated survivor," she said.

The vice president, however, did not go into details as to why she would not attend the SONA.

Meanwhile, Manila, 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua reacted to Duterte's comment, saying the joke was not in "good taste."

"Given current political tensions, such a joke is not in good taste because the security of the President of the Philippines is not a joking or laughing matter. Great care is taken to ensure the security of the President, especially during the SONA," he said in a statement, noting that the vice president does not have the "appointing power," but it is the "1987 Constitution that designates the Vice as the first next in line to succeed the President."

He also noted that he has "a nearly finished Designated Survivor bill" that he will share once it has been filed. 

Speculations of a falling out between Duterte and Marcos were going around after the former stepped down from her posts as the secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) and vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on  June 19.

However, Duterte said that they are “still friendly” with each other on a personal level.”

In the United States, a designated survivor is a "Cabinet member who does not attend the State of the Union address and would take over the presidency in case a catastrophic incident at the Capitol causes the death or incapacitation of everyone in the line of succession."

In 2020, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson filed a "designated survivor" bill to ensure the government can continue functioning even during emergencies, such as terrorist attacks, major disasters, or other "exceptional circumstances," where the president or key leaders are "killed or permanently disabled."

"This bill ... seeks to provide an exhaustive line/order of presidential succession in the event of death, permanent disability, removal from office or resignation of the Acting President to ensure that the office of the President is never vacated even in exceptional circumstances," Lacson said.

The concept of a "designated survivor" has also been popularized on television. ABS and Netflix's political thriller drama television series of the same name sees Kiefer Sutherland's character, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, become president following a Capitol bombing. The series was then adapted into a Korean drama titled, Designated Survivor: 60 Days, with Ji Jin-hee as the lead.