Marcos skips mention of Sara Duterte impeachment trial in SONA, drawing mixed reactions

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made no mention of the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, drawing mixed reactions from the prosecution team. The televised speech, formally addressed to Congress where one chamber impeached Vice President Sara Duterte for a second time in May and the other will decide her conviction or acquittal, was watched by millions of Filipinos. "We expected that it would be mentioned, so yes, we’re disappointed that it was not mentioned," said prosecution spokesperson Renee Co. "He could have at least asked Congress to respect the process and let the trial run its full course." House prosecutors Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno, however, said Marcos’ exclusion of the ongoing trial in his speech did not come as a surprise. "I didn’t expect it. I think the administration has been consistent in terms of keeping their hands off the case," Diokno said. "We were expecting that it won’t be mentioned, for him to show that he is hands off when it comes to impeachment," Mamamayang Liberal Representative de Lima added. "But he could have still said something about the need for accountability. I hope he had at least one or two sentences about that." Marcos, who has distanced himself from the impeachment efforts against the Vice President, said in early July that it would have been easier for the court if Duterte personally showed up at the trial. His son, House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, denied involvement in the operations of the House prosecution. "They’re all brilliant in their own way. Let them do what they need to do," the younger Marcos said ahead of his father’s SONA on Monday. One of the impeachment articles against the Vice President concerns her alleged threats against the lives of the President, First Lady Liza Marcos, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez. Duterte skipped Marcos’ SONA and said in an interview in The Hague that she had no plans of watching the speech. "I truly believe it is a waste of time of the Filipino people," she said. While most of the 317 lawmakers were present on Monday, only 11 of the 24-member Senate attended the joint session at the Batasang Pambansa.