House at full capacity for Marcos’ first SONA amid COVID-19 pandemic

Full capacity will be allowed in the House of Representatives for the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on July 25, House Secretary General Mark Llandro Mendoza said.

According to a report on GMA News’ Unang Balita on Wednesday, around 1,200 people will be allowed inside the Congress, including over 300 congressmen, 24 senators, and members of diplomatic corps.

Only a limited number of guests and members of the press will be allowed in the gallery.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 832 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the country’s caseload to 3,710,145.

The number of active infections also slightly decreased to 10,032 from 10,094 on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has already started security preparations for Marcos’ first SONA at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

PNP Director for Operations Police Major General Valeriano de Leon said they are now reviewing all the security plans from the past SONAs to adopt best practices and make adjustments.

"We want to prepare as early as possible so that we can have the best security measures for the SONA,” he said.

"We want to come up with a good template, a good security plan that we will present to our PNP officer-in-charge Police Lieutenant General Vicente Danao Jr. for review and approval," de Leon said. —Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News