Commission on Human Rights Chairman Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon would appeal the P1,000 budget approved by the House of Representative before the Senate.
“Despite this defeat in the House, we look forward to defending our budget in the Senate. We hope that reason, necessity, and rational minds will prevail both in the Senate and in the bicameral committee” Gascon said on September 12.
Gascon also gave gratitude to the 32 lawmakers who rejected the P1,000 budget proposal to the agency.
“I became teary-eyed because these were tears of joy. Not that we lost our budget. But because there were so many who stood up. Not the majority, but so many. In fact of those at the first stage who did not vote aye but had to stand up also approached me and said: That’s the politics of the majority,” he said to reporters.
Amid the decrease of budget, Gascon said he would not resign from his post as it would only put the agency at the “mercy of the politics.”
SAGIP Representative Rodante Marcoleta proposed a motion of lowering CHR’s budget to P1,000, with 199 lawmakers voted in favor of it and 32 legislators voted against the motion.
CHR can still be saved from the low budget for the coming fiscal year since the budget has to go through a round of deliberations in the Senate.
Various senators like Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Ralph Recto, Francis Pangilinan, Win Gatchalian, Sonny Angara, and JV Ejercito vowed to fight for a bigger budget for CHR.
CHR is an independent office created under the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines and is mandate to investigate all forms of violence involving civil and political rights in the country,
Source: Rappler, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Photo credit: FNF Philippines
