President Marcos said that his speech for his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22, has already been completed and is just undergoing finetuning as he attempts to not keep his address long.

Marcos said this as the public awaits his yearly report on his administration’s accomplishments and plans.

In an interview with reporters in Apayao on Friday, July 19, the President said SONA preparations are still ongoing but shared that his speech was already completed.

“Tuloy-tuloy pero yung kabuuan ng speech ko, tapos na. Finetuning na lang ang ginagawa namin (It’s still ongoing but my speech is already completed. We’re just finetuning it),” he said.

“Aayusin namin ‘yan lahat bukas at saka hanggang Linggo para maging handa sa SONA sa Lunes (We will spend the weekend fixing this so we’re ready for the SONA on Monday),” he added.

Marcos said that they are trying to keep his SONA short. His speech last year lasted for 70 minutes while his first SONA in 2022 went on for 74 minutes.

“Ang problema, napaka… marami ang gusto kong pag-usapan. Baka humaba masyado, kaya hinahanapan namin, pina-prioritize namin lahat (The problem is there are so many things we wanted to talk about. We’re concerned it might be long so we’re looking for ways… we’re prioritizing items),” he said.

“Tapos baka pwede makapag-explain ang ating mga secretary dun sa mga detalye ng iba (Then perhaps the secretaries can explain the other details),” he added.

Last week, President Marcos said that his administration is planning to release a SONA briefer that will be distributed to public and private stakeholders and schools. The SONA briefer will discuss in detail the government’s achievements, particularly those that might not make the SONA speech.

"Para malaman ng tao kung ano yung ginagawa natin at kung yung mga pangako na ating sinabi ay kung talaga nating tinutupad (So the people will be aware of what we are doing and check if we have been fulfilling our promises)," he said.

As with the previous SONA iterations, the President's speech will focus on updates on the administration’s efforts to uplift the lives of Filipinos, improve the economy, and address criminality and other social problems in the country.

"Ire-report ko kung talaga bang yung mga sinimulan natin ay tuloy-tuloy at maganda pa rin ang progress at kung gaano pa katagal bago matapos yung malalaking project na ‘yan (I will report if the projects we have started are progressing and when will the big projects be completed)," Marcos said.

"We will also report on the state of the nation in the sense that, what are the lives of our people, how are they doing? The economy, how is it doing? Criminality, how are we doing on that? How are we doing in the other problems, social problems, such as drugs, such as different threats that have been coming to us," he added.