Plan B means Palace SoNA
A Palace official on Friday did not discount the possibility of President Rodrigo Duterte holding his 5th State of the Nation Address (SoNA) in Malacañang Palace, depending on the results of the swab test that will be conducted on the guests of the event scheduled on Monday, 27 July.
In a radio interview, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, said before the SoNA at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, swabbing will take place among all the attendees to determine if they are COVID-19 positive or not.
If in case the test results showed that there is a high-number of attendees positive of the virus,
“Option B” will be put in motion with President Duterte’s SoNA to be done in Malacañang.
This means that only select members from Congress and the Senate will be allowed to witness live President Duterte’s SoNA at the Palace.
Escape hatch
“What’s good about this is that it was agreed upon that there will be two venues, either at the Lower House or here in Malacañang. There will be 50 guests inside Batasang Pambansa, it will not be more than 50, including representatives from the from the Palace. It will be divided by the Senate, Congress and Palace,” he noted.
“But before the SoNA could take place there will be a swabbing that will be done and through this swabbing, we will know if the SoNA will push through in the Lower House. If there is an increase in the number of positive or if there are any guests who turned out positive in the swab the Office of the President, including the PSG if we will go with option B which will be done here in Malacañang,” Andanar added.
Of course, the Senate President will be there, the Speaker of the House, the President, the Executive Secretary and select congressmen and senators. So, it will be few compared there at the Batasang Pambansa,” the Palace official explained.
Andanar said as far as he knows the swab test, to be done through PCR, will be conducted on the day itself in a hospital in Quezon City.
“It will be done on the day itself because we have a swab in which within minutes you will get the result,” he indicated.
“I understand it will be in one of the hospitals here in Quezon City he added.
As this developed, Andanar said the President is scheduled to rehearse his SoNA today. Director Joyce Bernal was also able to rehearse what will be done during Monday’s SoNA,
When asked how long the President’s speech will be, Andanar said he still has no idea as he has not read it.
I have not yet read the speech. So, I don’t know how long and the President has not yet rehearse, so we will not know with our stopwatch, we still cannot say how long the speech is, he said.