Camiguin Representative Jurdin Jesus Romualdo said Vice President Sara Duterte should focus her interest on observing proper decorum and tradition rather than watching Netflix series and cracking jokes about it.

“Vice President Sara Duterte should be more cautious with what she says. After all, she is still a public official, and Netflix is not a good basis for her actions or inactions,” Romualdo said. 

Duterte earlier pronounced she would not attend President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) this 22 July at Batasang Pambansa Complex. 

She also designated herself as the “designated survivor” of the event, which was taken from a Netflix thriller series of the same title—where high-ranking officials of the United States were killed in a bombing incident, leaving the designated survivor to lead the country. 

“Does she have a premonition of the things to come? She should refrain from watching too much Netflix. Her joke could have been better handled given that all high-ranking officials of the land would be there,” Romualdo asked. 

He lamented in the decades worth of SONAs, “nobody has ever flaunted being the 'designated survivor' and used it as the excuse to skip the important event.”

“Proper decorum and tradition say that the Vice President should be there in plenary at Batasan to hear the good President's report to the nation,” he added. 

Romualdo said, “This is among the political instances that take a backseat to transparency and unbridled communication with the public.”

“Vice President Duterte's predecessors did this with no issue while in office. One would think that she would also strive to achieve that standard,” he further stressed. 

President Marcos will deliver his third SONA before a joint session of Congress. Local and foreign dignitaries are expected to grace the event.