Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

House Speaker Martin Romualdez had earlier vowed that congressmen will pass the proposed P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) or national budget for 2024 in just five weeks.  

Four of these weeks will be used by the House Committee on Appropriations to scrutinize the NEP by going through each of the departments' individual budgets, while the fifth week will be used to approve the eventual General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on third and final reading in plenary.  

Week three of the budget process is already in the books. Before information overload takes over, here are the most intriguing angles from the week that was:

1. VP Duterte gets same courtesy from House as last year 

If the budget hearings this year are any indication, then nothing has changed with Vice President Sara Duterte's relationship with the House of Representatives. 

The House leadership extended the Office of the Vice President (OVP) parliamentary courtesy once again, leading to the quick termination of its budget hearing last Aug. 30. 

The hearing only lasted 14 minutes, with 10 of those minutes used on an audio-visual presentation of the budget worth P2.3 billion. None of the solons, particularly from the militant Makabayan bloc, were able to ask questions. 

Presidential son, Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos was the one who moved for the quick termination of the OVP budget worth P2.3 billion. 

Before this, some political observers held their breath as to how the OVP budget hearing would go, given how Duterte was linked to the House leadership spat earlier this year. 

In late July, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said he and the Vice President were "good".

2. Makabayan bloc stalwart praises Marcos' communications office 

The militant Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives are consistent administration critics. 

But last Aug. 29, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas gave credit to where credit was due and praised President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s communication arm for not having a "red-tagging" policy. 

"Keep it up, Sec! It's a good thing, no. No the red-tagging. Maraming salamat po (Thank you very much)," Brosas told Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cheloy Garafil. This left a huge smile on Garafil, as the lady solon also waived her interpellation during the PCO budget hearing. 

"Red-tagging" is the act of linking or associating a person or group to the communist movement. 

The Makabayan bloc had accused officials of the previous Duterte administration of red-tagging.

3. Can the poor afford the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing Program?

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro raised serious concerns last Aug. 29 on the viability of the country's socialized housing program for its supposed target sector. 

During the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development's (DHSUD) budget hearing, Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar told solons that the monthly housing amortization under the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing Program (4PH) costs between P3,500 and P4,300. 

Acuzar said this was the computation for a housing unit worth P1.4 million. Castro, a Makabayan member, was quick to point out that the minimum wage in Metro Manila was only P610 a day.  

“Kung titignan po yung presyo ng pabahay, hindi po ito pabahay para sa mga mahihirap (If you look at the cost of the housing, this isn't intended for the poor)," the lady solon said in her interpellation. 

She cited as an example the case of informal settlers who struggled to pay a P600 monthly amortization after they were relocated to Southville 7 in Calauan, Laguna.