{"id":263017,"date":"2020-07-27T03:47:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T07:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263017"},"modified":"2020-07-27T03:47:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T07:47:34","slug":"8-cabinet-secretaries-confirm-attendance-at-presidents-5th-sona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/27\/8-cabinet-secretaries-confirm-attendance-at-presidents-5th-sona\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Cabinet secretaries confirm attendance at President\u2019s 5th SONA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa on November 20, 2019. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Some Cabinet secretaries have confirmed their attendance to the fifth state of the nation address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte at the Batasang Pambansa on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

As of posting time, the eight Cabinet secretaries who have confirmed their attendance are Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Agriculture Secretary William Dar.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Roque said that 15 Cabinet members will be allowed to be physically present in Batasang Pambansa.<\/p>\n

Other Cabinet members will have to attend the Zoom viewing rooms organized by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to mitigate the risk of contracting coronavirus disease (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

In an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel, PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar said that despite testing negative for Covid-19, he will attend the SONA via Zoom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be here managing from home. I have a lot of things going on. We have the Zoom viewing room for the Cabinet members who will not be going to the Batasan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said there will be three separate Zoom viewing rooms for Cabinet officials, local chief executives, Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who cannot be physically present during the address.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will make sure that broadcast is unhampered during the SONA and we will ensure that the entire population gets to watch the President from all screens,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte is expected to deliver his second to the last SONA in Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

In case one of those invited to attend the annual event tests positive for Covid-19, Andanar said Duterte might deliver his SONA at Malaca\u00f1an in Manila instead.<\/p>\n

All attendees will be required to undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) before being allowed entry inside Batasang Pambansa.<\/p>\n

Currently, a total of 50 seats are reserved for lawmakers and 15 for Cabinet members if Duterte delivers his SONA at the Batasang Pambansa.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the presidential family, members of Congress and their spouses, former presidents, foreign diplomats, government officials and other dignitaries are invited to attend the annual SONA.<\/p>\n

There is no certainty whether Duterte\u2019s family would grace the event.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Some Cabinet secretaries have confirmed their attendance to the fifth state of the nation address (SONA) of President Rodrigo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":238030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263018,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263017\/revisions\/263018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}