Sara on Marcos not shaking her hand: Kakulay namin yung upuan

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. must have mistaken her and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos for chairs in the gallery because they wore the same color as the seats, Vice President Sara Duterte said on Tuesday.

The RTVM video of Marcos entering the House of Representatives plenary before his second State of the Nation Address showed Marcos shaking the hands of VIPs but missing doing so with Duterte and the First Lady.

“Yes, he did not shake my hand yesterday,” the Vice President said in a text message to GMA News Online.

“Kakulay ko kasi, namin ni FLAM ang upuan, kala niya cguro upuan kami dalawa,” she added. 

 (FLAM and I wore the same colors as the seats. He must have mistaken the two of us for chairs.)

During the SONA, the Vice President and the First Lady both wore yellow dresses.

The Vice President, who also serves as the Education secretary, earlier thanked the President for making learning recovery one of the government’s top priorities.

“His unremitting support for the reforms introduced by the Department of Education to the education system, the Matatag Agenda, will benefit not only our learners but also the teaching and non-teaching personnel," Duterte said post-SONA.

“I am truly grateful for President Ferdinand Marcos and his leadership marked with decisiveness, strength, fortitude, and political will — clearly demonstrated over the past year in office," she added. 

Both Marcos and Duterte overwhelmingly won during the 2022 elections with 31 and 32 million votes, respectively, more than double their second-ranked opponents, then Vice President Leni Robredo and then Senator Francis Pangilinan.

‘Decisive’

Duterte congratulated Marcos after he delivered his SONA and for his "decisive" leadership.

“I am truly grateful for President Ferdinand Marcos and his leadership marked with decisiveness, strength, fortitude, and political will — clearly demonstrated over the past year in office," the Vice President said.

"It is the kind of leadership that inspires us to be more aggressive in delivering what we have promised to the Filipino people," she added.

A Davao native, Duterte said she was also pleased to hear the administration’s development agenda for Mindanao.

“It offers us hope and a deep sense of optimism that the efforts to stamp out terrorism and the peace-building initiatives of the past administrations are strengthened to bring about meaningful development for the region and its people,” she said.

Marcos said Marawi City, which was devastated by a five-month long siege in 2017, would "rise again."

The President further said his administration is working on the financial aid to be distributed to the Marawi siege victims.

According to Ian Cruz's report on "24 Oras" on Monday, netizens who were watching SONA 2023 online noticed that Marcos missed shaking the hand of the Vice President in the reception line before he delivered his speech.

However, Marcos acknowledged Duterte in his speech and approached her after his address. —NB, GMA Integrated News