Sara Duterte asks Año: Why have I not been invited to an NSC meeting?

Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday, November 25, wrote an open letter to National Security Adviser Eduardo Año demanding an explanation on why she has never been invited to a National Security Council (NSC) meeting.

“As a member of the National Security Council (EO 115 Dec 24, 1986), I do not recall receiving a single notice of meeting since 30 June 2022. I request the NSA to please send to me the notarized minutes of all meetings conducted by the Council from 30 June 2022, if any. I want to review what the council has accomplished so far, in terms of policies and recommendations for national security,” she wrote.

“Moreover, please submit within 24 hours, an explanation in writing with legal basis why the VP is not a member of the NSC or why as a member I have not been invited to the meetings, whichever is applicable. I urge all National Security Council members and the Filipino people to demand transparency and accountability from the personnel of NSC,” she added.

The Vice President read the letter during a brief interview with media outside the Veterans Memorial Medical Center where her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, had been confined since Saturday, upon orders of the House committee on good government probing Duterte’s alleged fund misuse. (READ: House extends detention of Sara Duterte’s aide for 5 more days)

The Vice President is an ex-officio member of the NSC, and a member of the NSC Executive Committee.

A cursory check would show that since he assumed office, Marcos has not convened a full NSC meeting, which includes ex-officio members from the executive, Congress, and past presidents.

Marcos met with the NSC on February 7, 2023, to discuss its priority programs. It was not a full NSC meeting. Aside from Año, the only ones in attendance were NSC deputy director generals Benjamin Madrigal Jr. and Nestor Herico; Marlo Guloy, as well as National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr.; and key Palace officials.

In June, Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino had urged Marcos to convene the NSC in relation to China’s increased aggression in the West Philippine Sea, but even that was not enough to convince him to hold a full NSC meeting.

Duterte’s letter was triggered by Año’s reaction to her “threat” that in the event she is killed, she had arranged for the killing of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez.  Duterte said this during a virtual press conference early Saturday morning, November 23, and stressed, at the time, that she was not joking.

Año had said Duterte’s statement was a “matter of national security,” a position taken by Malacañang even after Duterte backtracked on her controversial statement and said in her open letter that it was “maliciously taken out of logical context.”

Perhaps the Vice President thought that people would be as tolerant of her as her father, who had made outrageous statements and claims when he was president, only to later clarify that they were just jokes or hyperboles.

Duterte, who ran as Marcos’ vice presidential candidate in the 2022 elections, officially severed ties with Marcos in June, when she resigned as his education secretary. She has been attacking him and his policies ever since. – Rappler.com