MANILA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will become the first president from Mindanao to deliver a State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
Communications secretary Martin Andanar said on Sunday that the speech, which is expected to be delivered in English, has been written mostly by the president himself and had already undergone more than 10 revisions.
He said the speech, which he described as "powerful," will run for about 38 minutes.
The tradition of the delivering a SONA in the country started in 1935 when then president Manuel Quezon addressed a special session of the National Assembly on November 25, 1935.
While first Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo delivered a speech during the Inaugural Session of the Assembly of Representatives or the Malolos Congress in Sept. 15, 1898, it was not considered a SONA but a congratulatory message to the Assembly.
The SONA, after only being enshrined in the 1935 Philippine Constitution, became an annual practice since the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Since then, as stated under the 1935 Constitution, the delivery of a SONA became a constitutional obligation and yearly tradition where president reports on the status of the country, unveils the government's agenda for the coming year, and proposes to Congress certain legislative measures.
The delivery of the SONA is made by the president in the presence of a joint Congress and is usually delivered in the Session Hall of the House of Representatives.
A briefer prepared by the Official Gazette said a total of 76 SONA have already been delivered since then and Duterte's address tomorrow will be the 77th.
There were at least four years when the annual SONA was not delivered which happened during the World War II or Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1944, and in 1986 after the first Edsa People Power Revolution.
