Marcos 2nd SONA may run for an hour and 25 minutes: Sandro

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s speech for his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) had a lot of revisions, his son Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos said Monday.

In an interview with reporters, the lawmaker said he was with the President on Sunday, the "only time he rehearsed." The initial drafted speech which his father wrote was supposedly too long.

"A lot," he said when asked how many times the speech was revised.

"Sinimulan namin mahaba, it was much much longer than an hour 20, an hour 30 but he was able to get it done naman," said Marcos. "To begin with, medyo mahaba but he was able to shave it down a little bit."

"He wanted to shorten it because he said mawawala 'yung attention span ng tao kapag masyado mahaba," he said.

"I was with him yesterday... It was a good speech," he added.

The younger Marcos said he is hoping his father's SONA would go smoothly, and refused to answer questions about the highlights of his father's speech.

"It will essentially be, like he said, what has been done in the last year and what problems we continue to face and what continues to be done," he said.

"It was no different than the first year, he wrote the speech and asked for people to look it over, it was nice to have a fresh set of eyes after writing and writing it again," he added.

The speech this year may last for an hour and 25 minutes, he noted.

It was so far unclear, the lawmaker said, if former First Lady Imelda Marcos would attend the second SONA.

More details to follow.