MANILA — A human rights coalition is calling for public reckoning and accountability from former President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. prepares to deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

The Duterte Panagutin Campaign Network, composed of legal advocates and civil society groups, emphasized the urgency of justice for what it describes as “systemic violence and institutional impunity” under the Duterte administration, particularly in connection with the bloody anti-drug campaign that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

“Justice remains out of reach,” the group said in a statement released Sunday. “Ordinary citizens, journalists, students, critics, and innocent bystanders continue to vanish; disappeared, silenced, and killed.”

The campaign network noted that Rodrigo Duterte is currently facing trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), while Vice President Sara Duterte is under investigation domestically “for crimes against the nation and abuse of her office.”

The group accused the current political system of shielding powerful figures while neglecting widespread suffering among the population, citing persistent corruption, rising living costs, deteriorating public services, and chronic labor precarity.

“These are not abstract issues, they are the daily reality of the people,” the statement read. “Corruption festers at every level of government, with billions of pesos plundered or misused, protected by a system designed to serve only the most violent and powerful families and oligarchs in our country.”

The coalition criticized the annual SONA as a political performance disconnected from the lived experiences of Filipinos, urging citizens instead to mobilize and reflect on the genuine state of the nation.

“Democracy is not a performance delivered from a podium. It lives and breathes in the public square, in the streets, in our communities, in our refusal to stay silent,” it said.

As part of the People’s SONA mobilizations, the Duterte Panagutin Network called on Filipinos to assert their constitutional rights and hold state leaders accountable through peaceful protests and civic engagement.

“History is written in moments like these,” the group added. “Let us ask ourselves honestly: What is the true state of our nation? And what will we say and do about it?”