In an interview on July 11, 2024, VP Sara Duterte, when asked if she will attend President Bongbong’s third State of the Nation Address, she said that she will not be attending it and that she appoints herself as the “designated survivor”. This comment or jokes drew flak from several high ranking official as well as some netizens.
Thus, in order to have an understanding of what a designated survivor is, I decided to make it the topic for this week’s column. In this edition, we will discuss the concept of designated survivor and whether it is applicable in Philippine jurisdiction.
The concept of designated survivor is present in USA’s political jurisdiction. It is a person or official in the presidential line of succession who is kept distant from others in the said line when they are gathered together, to reduce the chance that everyone in the line will be unable to take over the presidency in a catastrophic or mass-casualty event. The official chosen as a designated survivor shall stay at an undisclosed secured location away from such events as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations where all officials in the line of succession are present.[1] The rationale for such designation is to assure continuity of government and to prevent political chaos and disarray in case the president, the vice president and other officials in the presidential line of succession perish.
The idea of having an official to be assigned as the designated survivor arose in the 1950s during the Cold War. It emerges out of fear that a nuclear attack may kill the president, the vice president and others in the presidential line. In recent times, the designated survivor is chosen a few hours before the U.S. President commences his speech in the State of the Union Address as the former will be moved and placed in a secure location away from the officials in the line of succession.
In selecting the designated survivor, aside from the criterion that he/she should be an official in the line of succession, he/she must also be constitutionally qualified to become the President of the United States of America. That is to say, that the named designated survivor should possessed the eligibility requirements as enshrined under Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution.
No persons except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Thus, a designated survivor should be a (1) natural born citizen; (2) at thirty-five (35) years of age; and (3) a resident of the United States for fourteen (14) years. Up until present, however, none of the designated survivor ever assumed the presidency. One of the most notable person chosen to be a designated survivor is former first lady Hillary Clinton when she was the Secretary of State on January 27, 2010 during the State of the Union Address of then President Barack Obama.
In the Philippines, there is no such thing as a designated survivor. There is no provision in the 1987 Philippine Constitution that provides that a particular person or official will assume the presidency in case all the officials in the line of presidential succession perish. But to answer the query as to who will act as President in case such unfortunate thing occurs, Section 8, Article VII of the Constitution is instructive, to wit:
“Section. 8 In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of the President, the Vice President shall become the president to serve the unexpired term. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of both the President and the Vice President, the President of the Senate, or in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall then act as President until the President or Vice President shall have been elected and qualified.
The Congress shall, by law, provide who shall serve as President in case of death, permanent disability, or resignation of the Acting President, He shall serve until the President or Vice President shall have been elected and qualified, and be subject to the same restrictions of powers and disqualifications of the Acting President.’’
By reason of this provision, I am of the opinion that in case all the officials in the line of presidential succession perish at the same time, it is Congress who shall, by law, provide as to who shall act as president.