President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (Noel Pabalate/ MANILA BULLETIN)



The leadership of the House of Representatives is now preparing the guest list for President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s second State of the Nation Address (SONA), which is slated on July 24. This was bared by House Secretary General Reginald Velasco to reporters in his latest update on the annual event. "We are just preparing, number one, the guest list," he said. "Kasi very important yung (Because it's very important to get the) guest list from the Senate, from the Office of the President (OP), before we can finalize our own guest list," said Velasco, who is the highest ranked civilian official in the chamber. Velasco had earlier said that more people will physically attend this year's SONA ,compared to the 2022 iteration of the event. Marcos' maiden SONA--the first to be held in full face-to-face set-up since the Covid-19 pandemic started--drew 1,365 visitors. The plenary only has a capacity of 1,200 people. It was reconfigured for last year's SONA to fit the number of invited guests. "As you know, natanggal yung first gallery (the first gallery had been removed), so we lost about 500 seats," Velasco said, referring to renovations that were done to the plenary at the tail end of the 18th Congress. At any rate, Velasco hinted that more progress will follow once the House gets its hands on the guests lists of the Senate and OP. "The sooner we get the list of guest, the better for us," he said.