On Monday, July 27, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa, followed by Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s kontra SONA the next day. The two speeches will frame the final year of the Marcos administration as a test of promises made, bills passed, and the economic challenges that have kept inflation high and growth slow.
The SONA agenda
Marcos’s SONA comes after an election year that has left the administration entering its final two years with nearly half its priority legislative agenda intact. According to GMA News, the President faced questions over the past year about his sincerity in tackling corruption, answering with a cryptic “Abangan ang susunod na kabanata” (Stay tuned for the next chapter). The agenda is expected to cover infrastructure spending that has been held up by flood control issues, the cost of living crisis, and the pending implementation of the 2025 budget priorities.
Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano at the Batasang Pambansa podium (Photo: Philstar)
The kontra SONA counterpoint
While Marcos speaks to the nation, Cayetano will deliver his kontra SONA from the Senate podium, a parliamentary tradition where the minority leader refutes the President’s address. In a Facebook Live on Friday, Cayetano said he would translate SONA into “SANA” for “stewarding a national agenda,” emphasizing unity over partisan politics. His kontra SONA is set for Tuesday, July 28, after the President’s remarks have settled into the public record.
What to watch for
Key expectations from both speeches include Marcos’s approach to corruption investigations that have raised questions of selectiveness, the status of the 52 priority bills that have barely moved through Congress, and how the administration plans to address the economic slowdown that Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian has attributed to decreased infrastructure spending. Cayetano’s kontra SONA will be the first opportunity for opposition voices to challenge those priorities in real time.
