President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) may be among the shortest since the custom began, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said on Sunday, July 23.
In an interview with reporters, Romualdez said the President’s SONA scheduled on Monday, July 24, could take an hour or less to deliver.
"I have heard that might just be about one hour long, mga [about] 45 minutes. I have not seen, I don’t know what he will take about," he said.
House Speaker @MartinRomualdez on PBBM’s SONA speech> I heard this might just be not more than one hour long, baka 45 minutes. I have not seen, I don’t know what he is going to talk about @dzrhnews
— milky rigonan 💋 (@milkyrigonan) July 22, 2023
The shortest SONA was given by former president and current House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with only 1,556 words. It is believed that each of her nine SONAs lasted 50 minutes on average.
"All I can tell you as we are approaching this first-year anniversary so to speak or the second SONA, right now, the country as you’ve already seen, is clocking as the fastest growth rate in terms of GDP [gross domestic product] globally in the world," Romualdez said.
In comparison to the 8.0% increase in the same quarter last year and the 7.1% growth in the last quarter of 2022, the Philippine economy grew by 6.1% in the first quarter of 2023.
The second quarter's results have not yet been disclosed.
Last week, Marcos said that his SONA will be "really very simple" and serve as a "performance report" for the Filipino people, showing them which of his promises have been carried out.
The Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City had already been placed under lockdown since Thursday, July 20, prior to the President's SONA.
