SCREENGRAB FROM RTVM
ALL the living former presidents are present for the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte – except for Duterte’s predecessor Benigno Aquino III.
Former president and now Pampanga lawmaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sat beside former president Fidel Ramos in the row reserved for the high-ranking government officials.
For the first time in four years since being detained
at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Arroyo went back to the House of Representatives. The former president was recently ordered released after the Supreme Court dismissed her plunder case.
Former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada was seated separately beside Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo sat near Estrada, while former vice president Jejomar Binay sat beside Sereno and former senate president Manny Villar.
Aquino had said before that he would skip attending this year’s SONA./ac