Presidents may go over the years, but one tradition remains steadfast for the head of the country: giving the State of the Nation Address (SONA). It’s more than just a day where Filipinos enjoy a day off from school or work. It’s when they can listen to the president’s plans for the country’s future as long as they hold the position.
Delivering the SONA has always been a part of the President’s duties ingrained in the Philippines’ history and Constitution.
The SONA that Filipinos know today underwent several revisions throughout the years, depending on the mandate of the existing constitution. It began during the Commonwealth of the Philippines. The 1935 Constitution, as amended, stated in Article VII, Section 5 that:
“[T]he President shall from time to time give to the Congress information on the state of the Nation, and recommend to its consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
Thus, the annual address became known as the State of the Nation Address.
Former President Manuel L. Quezon delivered the first SONA during a special session of the National Assembly on November 25, 1935. Quezon mentioned in his speech that he was giving his message in fulfillment of the Constitutional mandate to report to “the state of the Nation” to Congress during its opening session. Thus, the priority of his speech involved the “first and most urgent need” involving the “very existence when we become a free member of the family of nations”–the establishment of a national defense policy.
Afterward, Commonwealth Act No. 17 fixed the opening date of the National Assembly’s sessions to June 16. Quezon delivered the second SONA at the Legislative Building on June 16, 1936, the first SONA before a regular session.
Commonwealth Act No. 49, however, amended CA 17 and designated the 16th of October as the date of the opening of the regular sessions of the National Assembly. Since this fell on a Saturday in 1937, the third SONA by President Quezon fell on Monday, October 18, 1937.
Quezon delivered his sixth and last SONA on January 31, 1941, as he would already be in exile the following year because of the Japanese occupation.
By the Second Republic, President Jose P. Laurel delivered his first and only message before the special session of the National Assembly, led by Speaker Benigno Aquino, on October 18, 1943, four days after establishing the Republic. It also took place in the Legislative Building in Manila.
However, Laurel, who drafted the 1935 Constitution among other delegates, said the 1943 Constitution lacks a report to the Legislature on the nation’s state. His message before the assembly is not on the roster of SONAs.
The next SONA occurred after restoring the Commonwealth from the Japanese occupation. The Congress of the Philippines, elected in 1941 as a bicameral body, convened on June 9, 1945. A special session saw the deliverance of the SONA. During this session, President Sergio Osmeña addressed the lawmakers at their temporary quarters in a converted school house at Lepanto Street in Manila. It was Osmeña’s first and only SONA.
President Manuel Roxas delivered the last SONA under the Commonwealth of the Philippines on June 3, 1946. After establishing the independent Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946, the SONA was to be delivered on the fourth Monday of January, under Commonwealth Act No. 244, starting with Roxas’s address to the First Congress of the Republic on January 27, 1947.
In the Third Republic, starting in 1949, the address was held at the reconstructed Legislative Building. Only once did a president not appear personally before Congress: On January 23, 1950, President Elpidio Quirino, who was recuperating at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, delivered his SONA to the Joint Session of Congress via radio broadcast through RCS in the United States that was picked up by the local radio network at 10:00 a.m., just in time for the opening of the regular Congressional session.
Delivering the SONA under succeeding presidents happened without a hitch since then, until 1970.
When President Ferdinand E. Marcos delivered his SONA on January 26, 1970, it marked the start of the First Quarter Storm, a period of unrest brought about by student-led political demonstrations in Manila from January to March 1970. The last SONA under the 1935 Constitution occurred on January 24, 1972.
On September 23, 1972, President Marcos declared Martial law, closing Congress before it was due to commence on January 22, 1973, when there was supposed to be a SONA.
From 1973 to 1977, he delivered the SONA on the official anniversary of the imposition of Martial law on September 21. These addresses happened before an assembly either in Malacañang Palace or at Rizal Park, except in 1976, when it occurred during the opening of the Batasang Bayan (appointed legislative body) at the Philippines International Convention Center. Whenever the 21st of September fell on Sunday, he delivered the SONA on the Friday before. Such was the case in the tenth SONA of Marcos on September 19, 1975. Moreover, the 1973 Constitution dropped the term “State of the Nation.”
President Marcos began delivering the SONA at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on June 12, 1978, during the opening session of the Interim Batasang Pambansa. From 1979 onward, the SONA happened on the fourth Monday of July, following the provisions of the 1973 and, later, 1987 Constitutions.
In 1983, the SONA happened on January 17, commemorating the anniversary of the ratification of the 1973 Constitution and the second anniversary of the lifting of Martial law.
When President Corazon C. Aquino declared a revolutionary government in 1986, she did not deliver any SONA. However, on June 4, 1986, to mark her first 100 days in office, Aquino delivered a speech addressing the nation’s status in the form of a panel discussion with several members of her cabinet broadcasted from Malacañang Palace.
As the Philippines entered the Fifth Republic, and with the restoration of Congress in 1987, Aquino delivered her first SONA in the Session Hall of the House of Representatives at the Batasang Pambansa Complex, Quezon City. It marked the return of the Constitutional requirement. However, the 1987 Constitution dropped the term “state of the Nation,” but the name had become traditional.
Presidents Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno S. Aquino III all delivered their SONAs at the same venue
Basics of the SONA
During the SONA, the incumbent President of the Philippines appears before Congress upon its invitation. A joint session will occur in the Session Hall of the House of Representatives. Congress issues tickets, with Congress as the official host and undertaking all the necessary preparations for the event.
On Monday morning, the House of Representatives and the Senate hold their respective sessions in their assigned chambers and elect their officials. Shortly after, both chambers will file a concurrent resolution that they are ready to hear the address of the President. Both Houses will also suspend their sessions for the day.
In the afternoon, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Sergeants-at-Arms of both Houses of Congress meet the President at Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, either planeside or car side. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces will then escort the President past the Honor Guard.
The President’s military escort is relieved of duty and replaced by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives, symbolizing the independence of the Legislature. They will escort the President to the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO), which serves as the chief executive’s office in the House of Representatives. The leaders of both chambers traditionally pay a courtesy call on the President in the PLLO.
A Welcoming Committee, appointed by and among peers in both Chambers of Congress, accompanies the President into the Session Hall. Once the President enters the Session Hall, the Speaker of the House announces their arrival before the former takes their position between the Senate President and the latter. The Joint Session of Congress will be in order, and the event begins by singing the Philippine national anthem and invocation. After which, the President descends to the rostrum to deliver the SONA.
Once the President delivers the address, the Speaker of the House and Senate President will close the Joint Session of Congress and proceed to their respective chambers.
On July 25, Monday, incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will deliver his first SONA like his predecessors did. He will uphold the tradition throughout his six-year term, and his successors for the highest seat of power in the country will do the same.