The Senate opposition bloc, except for Senator Camille Villar, boycotted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Monday, in protest of the administration’s perceived political persecution against several of their colleagues.

Minority leader Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said he would rather watch the SoNA on TV rather than witness it in person at the Batasang Pambansa, the seat of the House of Representatives dominated by Marcos’s allies.

Like Cayetano, his sister Senator Pia Cayetano and Senator Imee Marcos were clad in black as a political statement to show their fierce opposition to the government’s policies and actions against the staunchest critics of the administration, the majority of whom are allied with their bloc.

Aside from the Cayetano siblings and Senator Marcos, also no-shows at the SoNA were Senators Loren Legarda, Robin Padilla, Bong Go and Mark Villar.

Senators Tito Sotto, Ping Lacson and Bam Aquino, though they belong to the majority bloc, also skipped the SoNA.

“I’ll just listen [to the SoNA]. It’s just that we feel aggrieved because the minority are being detained and charged. That’s all. I just don’t think I can take it. It sits wrong with me,” Senator Marcos told reporters in an interview.

Members of the Senate minority bloc shrank from 11 to nine with the arrest of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta on plunder charges. At the same time, Senator Bato dela Rosa’s remains in hiding from an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

The Senate minority has long derided the political harassment or systematic effort to intimidate the opposition and discourage them from calling for a transparent investigation into the flood control corruption scandal where several lawmakers allied with the President are implicated.

Alan Cayetano is also facing a spate of criminal charges involving, among other things, the alleged “ghost” projects in his bailiwick of Taguig City.

Although no formal charges have been filed against him, Lacson, who is spearheading the Taguig flood control probe, has signaled that the case against Cayetano will skip the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) and proceed directly to the Office of the Ombudsman to fast-track the filing of charges and the issuance of an arrest warrant.

The two have been locked in a word war involving the flood control project investigation, with Cayetano accusing Lacson — the former BRC chair — and his allies in the majority of derailing the BRC’s flood control probe to shield the administration and lawmakers allied with the President.