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PNoy appoints former LP exec as new CHR chair


(Updated 1:28 p.m.) President Benigno Aquino III has appointed a former official of the ruling Liberal Party (LP) as the new Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson.

Lawyer Jose Luis Martin “Chito” Gascon will replace outgoing CHR chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales, the commission’s information division announced in a statement Wednesday. He will serve as human rights chief until May 2022. Rosales' term ended May 5.

Gascon was the director general of the LP, which Aquino currently chairs, from 2008 to 2011.

The incoming CHR chairman is currently a member of the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board, which processes claims for compensation for victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law era.

During former President Gloria Macapal-Arroyo’s administration, Gascon served as education undersecretary and as a member of the peace panel which negotiated with the communist-led National Democratic Front.

He was also the youngest member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission which drafted the 1987 Constitution.

New commissioners

President Aquino has also named three new commissioners to the CHR.

Appointed to the commission was children’s rights advocate and civil society leader Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana.

Pimentel-Gana is the daughter of former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. She also ran for senator under the Nacionalista Party during the 2010 polls.

Also named CHR commissioner was migrant workers’ rights advocate Karen Gomez Dumpit, who previously served as director of the commission’s government linkages office.

Justice Undersecretary Leah Tanodra-Armamento, who led the department’s Committee for the Special Protection of Children, was also appointed as CHR commissioner.  — Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMA News
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