A State of the Nation Address (SONA) won’t be complete without protests.

“On Monday, July 28, thousands of protesters marched along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City toward Batasan Pambansa for the 5th State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino III,” reports Dennis Carcamo on Philstar.com.

The report said that “as early as 8am, a small group of protesters from various people’s organizations marched from Quezon City Memorial Circle toward Commonwealth Avenue.”

The protesters eventually settled near the barricaded part of Commonwealth Avenue.

While rally organizers estimated that there were around 30,000 people, police only placed the number of protesters at 7,500.

Either way, it’s still in the thousands.

Screengrab of photo by dzMM correspondent Dennis Datu, as shared to the public via his Twitter page