Palace: Duterte’s third SONA to come ‘straight from the heart’

Malacañang on Thursday provided a hint of what to expect at the third State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte on July 23.

"There is still a speech writer but I think they want it to be a message straight from the heart of the President, not hindered by the need to report on the different achievements," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference.

“That’s to give the President latitude to say whatever he wants during the SONA, because he has already laid out his achievements in the different clusters,” he said.

Duterte is known for going off-script in his speeches.

Roque earlier announced that Cabinet officials will appear in a series of forums this month to report on the Duterte administration’s achievements in its first two years.

Organized by Malacañang, the two-week “Tatak ng Pagbabago” information campaign will hit the road from July 6 until July 18, or five days before Duterte's report to the nation before a joint session of Congress at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

Roque said on Tuesday the forums would show what the policies and projects implemented so far by the government “mean for the future of every Filipino.” — BM, GMA News