CHR chair, commissioners don’t serve at pleasure of Duterte, exec says

An official from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) insisted on Thursday that Chairperson Chito Gascon has a fix term following calls for him to quit from his post.

"We do not serve at the pleasure of the current administration, we are here to serve a Constitutional mandate to monitor government compliance and their obligations in relation to human rights. So we have a fix term and that is actually set on jurisprudence. We have a fix term that cannot be shortened," Commissioner Karen Dumpit said in a press conference.

"Let us just reiterate that we are just on our second-year of our seven-year term. So we will be here until May 5, 2022," Dumpit added.

Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the CHR chief should resign and he even accused the agency of not caring about the victims of suspected drug personalities.

"Hindi nila ginagawa yung dapat nilang gawin. I-condemn nila ang lahat ng human rights violation, hindi yung masyadong one-sided. May nakita ka na ba nilang ikinondena na mga human rights violation na mga ibang groups diyan, mga communist o itong mga pinatay na SAF. Kinondemn ba nila ito? Hindi," Aguirre said.

"Baka 'yun [Gascon's resignation] ang makaluwag if ever. Kasi masyadong, alam naman natin kung sino ang nag-appoint sa kanya at 'yun lamang ang parang tinitingnan niya," he added.

On Thursday, Senator Vicente Sotto also made remarks that Gascon should resign if he does not agree with the policies of the Duterte administration.

“Siguro [he should resign], or pwede ring confine yourself to the issues. Stop barking at the President or the policy of the government. Policy ng presidente yun, eh 'di umalis ka,” Sotto said.

Calls for Gascon's resignation came after the House of Representatives decided to reduce the CHR's 2018 budget from P678-million to P1,000 last Tuesday.

During the interpellation, 1-SAGIP party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta argued that the CHR should have been investigating all human rights violations, regardless of which group an individual belongs to. —NB, GMA News