THERE is no way we can give Vice President Sara Duterte a pass when she declared she would not be attending the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and that she had appointed herself as the designated survivor — except for us to take it as a joke.

The contrary would be damning to her, who is also a member of the bar, as a registered lawyer. It would be alarming since it would reveal that her knowledge of the legal process of succession is based not on any existing law or the Philippine Constitution but on an American television drama, later adapted as a Korean political soap opera.