Nonetheless, the title holder participates in humanitarian and charitable work on behalf of the president, often in line with his or her policies and programmes.

[1] Benigno Aquino III never married, so the palace hired professionals to manage tasks and duties customarily reserved for the first lady, such as organizing state dinners.

[6] During the 2015 APEC summit hosted in Pasay, his youngest sister, Kris Aquino served as temporary first lady for the event.

[7][8][9][10][11] Prior to his inauguration, incumbent Rodrigo Duterte declared his eldest daughter Sara would be the first lady despite having Honeylet Avanceña as his common-law wife.

[15][16] Former Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary Rafael Alunan suggested that Vice-President Leni Robredo serve as de facto first lady[17] but this never materialised.

Avanceña nevertheless would fulfill roles usually conducted by the first lady such as during the official visit of Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and the 30th ASEAN Summit in 2017.