With just days to go before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), the House of Representatives on Monday declared that it is already “90 to 95 percent ready” to host the annual event at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.
House spokesperson lawyer Princess Abante made the announcement during a press conference following the final interagency coordination meeting held earlier in the day to finalize preparations.
“From the discussions I heard earlier, maybe we are 90 to 95 percent ready, leaving room for some adjustments,” Abante told reporters in a mix of English and Filipino.
She said that “most of the preparations are already finalized.”
“Just some matters that need to be checked. I think in a while, the interagency delegation will have a walkthrough in the House of Representatives. But other than that, we are all set,” Abante said.
The spokesperson said the House is now in the final stretch of SONA preparations, with all agencies involved closely monitoring weather conditions and fine-tuning contingency plans.
Despite intermittent rains and prevailing weather systems in recent days, she clarified that these have not caused any disruption.
“As of today, the preparations continue. There are no delays. Of course, we will keep on monitoring the developments in the coming days. There are no disruptions now in the preparations,” Abante said.
The lawyer also said contingency plans are being considered in case of severe weather, but there have been no talks of postponing the physical gathering.
She added that security preparations are finalized and will be similar to last year, with minor adjustments as needed.
“Of course, there will always be adjustments on various situations or concerns, but just the same, the security group is all prepared for next week’s SONA,” Abante said, clarifying that there are no specific security threats currently being monitored.
On the guest list, she said that while she does not have the exact numbers, attendance is expected to be similar to last year’s record turnout.
“Last year, I think that was one of the most attended SONA that we’ve had in recent history. If I remember, more than 1,500 confirmed attendance last year. And we are expecting that the numbers will be similar to that,” Abante said.
“We are looking forward for the President’s report to the country. And we are inviting everyone to stay tuned in the different media outlets and social media accounts so that all of us will hear what the President will report as to the developments of our country and what we will be expecting in the next coming months,” she concluded.
