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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Friday. September 22, 2017
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MANILA – Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairman Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon is grateful that the House of Representatives decided to restore the agency’s budget for 2018.
House representatives earlier approved only a highly criticized P1,000 for the CHR – way below the proposed P649.48 million.
“We are grateful to those who stood firm in championing human rights inside and out the halls of Congress as CHR affirms its commitment to advance All Human Rights for All People,” Gascon said in a statement released yesterday.
“We thank the leadership of the House of Representatives for their open mind and open heart in accepting arguments of reason and necessity to continue to fund CHR’s work,” he added.
House appropriations committee chairman Karlo Nograles said the restoration of the CHR budget followed Gascon’s meeting with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday.
According to Nograles, Gascon agreed for the CHR to extend its investigations to other syndicates victimizing the police, civilians and the military, and not limit them to human rights violations by state agents.
“The [House] speaker basically told Chairman Gascon that we are not the enemy,” Nograles said in a statement. “The Duterte government is not the enemy. We are one with the CHR in the fight against all forms of human rights violations.”
“But [Alvarez told Gascon] they must start looking also at the violations committed by criminals and insurgents,” Nograles added. “Chairman Gascon has agreed with the speaker’s suggestions.”
NCIP, ERC BUDGETS RESTORED, TOO
The budgets of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) were restored, too, after their respective commissioners, Geronimo Sta. Ana and Leonor Oralde-Quintayo, met with Alvarez.
House representatives also earlier allocated just P1,000 for ERC and NCIP, citing the agencies’ nonperformance.
Sta. Ana and Oralde-Quintayo agreed to take all necessary steps to fight graft and corruption and carry out the full mandate of their offices, Nograles said.
“The dialogue was very frank but cordial. In the end, the speaker was magnanimous in his decision and gave the green light to restoring their agencies’ budget for 2018,” said the committee chairman.
The restoration of the budgets of the CHR, ERC and NCIP will be seen in the third reading of the proposed P3.767-trillion national budget for 2018, Nograles said./PN
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