League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) national president, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, was invited jointly by the Senate and House of Representatives to personally attend the sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte today at the Batasang Pambansa.

But Leonardia said he will attend the ceremony virtually “due to COVID-related concerns here.”

“I am honored by the invitation, but while I would like to attend physically, I would prefer to do it virtually instead due to COVID-related concerns here which need my personal attention. That is why I had never left Bacolod City since February 2020 when the pandemic started. Yes, not even once,” the mayor said.

Leonardia had personally attended Duterte’s SONA from 2016 to 2019.

In September 2019, Duterte appointed Leonardia as the lone representative of the local government units in the country to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council./WDJ