Third Sona to be different A general view of President Duterte’s state of the nation address at Congress last year. The Palace said the third Sona will have a different perspective this year coming “straight from the heart of the President.” AFP One of the “changes” in this year’s SONA event is the directorial debut of movie and TV director Joyce Bernal.

President Duterte will deviate from the usual State of the Nation Address (SONA) when he delivers his third address on July 23, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

He told reporters that Malacanang wants it to be a “message straight from the heart of the President.”

“I think they want it to be a message straight from the heart of the President, not hindered by the need to report on different achievements that will be reported by the different clusters in the pre-SONA briefings that would be conducted,” he said.

Roque was referring to a series of forums presenting the Duterte administration’s accomplishments last year and in the coming year slated to be conducted during next week’s so-called “SONA watch.”

There will be briefings by the various economic development and infrastructure and Cabinet clusters where their respective policies, programs and projects carried out during the second year in office of the President, the Palace official said.

“That will be held in PICC (Philippine International Convention Center). That’s to give latitude to say whatever he wants during the SONA because he has already laid out his achievements in the different clusters,” Roque said.

“I know who are writing the speech but I haven’t actually sat down with them. So I said, ‘I need to sit down with you people and find out what exactly you’ll put in the speech because obviously a major change is that there’s now a pre-SONA briefing by different clusters. So intrigue, intrigue. We all are intrigued on what the President will say (in his speech),” Roque added.

Probably one of the “changes” in this year’s SONA event is the directorial debut of movie and TV director Joyce Bernal.

Bernal is reported to take over the directorial job from award-winning director Brillante Mendoza for the broadcast coverage of the SONA.

When asked by reporters on this matter, Roque said he’s not at liberty to confirm this although Bernal herself had already announced it in public.

“I just requested if I could confirm and they said not yet. Maybe because there’s no signed contract yet and you know the policy of this office, I need the document. But I heard the same,” he said.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar, however, confirmed that Bernal will direct the next SONA.