After the House of Representatives decided to restore the budget of the Commission on Human Rights, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday reminded CHR officials to refrain from making “partisan statements.”
The House appropriations committee on Wednesday said it will restore the budget of the CHR, ERC and the NCIP. It had earlier approved a budget of P1,000 for each government agency.
However, the full P678-million allocation for the CHR will not be restored, after the House panel made cuts in the agency’s maintenance and other operating expenses.
Gatchalian said the CHR should heed the call of the lawmakers to avoid partisan statements and one-sided investigations.
“We thank our House counterparts for restoring the budgets of the three vital national institutions—CHR, ERC and NCIP,” Gatchalian said referring to the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Gatchalian said the CHR can start by investigating the “barbaric acts” of fraternities in light of the death of freshman law student Horacio Tomas “Atio” Castillo III.
“They should also recommend appropriate steps to stop these senseless deaths perpetuated by these brutal organizations through their so-called initiation rites,” the senator said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who is tasked to defend the budget of the CHR at the Senate deliberations, welcomed the move of the House to restore the agency’s allocation.
“That’s well taken. Mabuti naman at hindi na magkaka-aberya sa bicam. Nagkakaisa kasi mga senators sa issue across party lines,” Lacson said.
Davao City Representative Karlo Nograles, the committee chair, said his panel has been given the approval to endorse the restoration of the budget after the heads of the three agencies appealed to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
Alvarez had been particularly outspoken against CHR chair Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon and the latter’s agency, which he accused of not doing their jobs as it continued to criticize the rising death toll in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
“The Speaker basically told Chairman Gascon that we are not the enemy. The Duterte government is not the enemy. We are one with the CHR in the fight against all forms of human rights violation but they must start looking also at the violations committed by criminals and insurgents,” Nograles said.