Kiko vows to restore CHR funding even if it means passing reenacted budget

Opposition senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Wednesday vowed to push for the restoration of the proposed 2018 funding for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) even if it means passing a reenacted budget.

This, after the House of Representatives voted 119-32 approving a measly P1,000-budget for the CHR Tuesday night. The proposed budget for CHR is P678 million.

Reports quoting CHR Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana said Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will give a thumbs up on the CHR’s budget only if the agency’s chairman, Chito Gascon, will resign from his post.

“The message and pattern is that anyone who is critical of this administration will be bullied and intimidated into submission or face its wrath. It is anti-democratic and authoritarian,” Pangilinan said.

“We are committed to oppose such moves by restoring the CHR budget in the Senate even if it means the non-passage of the 2018 budget and the reenactment of the 2017 budget wherein funding for the CHR is assured,” he added.

If the 2017 budget for CHR is reenacted, the agency would even get a higher budget of P725 million, compared to the proposed 2018 budget.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who earlier vowed to restore the P678-million allocation, said "the issue is not about Chairman Gascon or any of the commission's officers and members. It is about right and wrong." Lascon will sponsor the CHR budget in plenary.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the CHR may even need a higher budget because of the spate of killings.

“The CHR is a constitutional body mandated by the Constitution to protect our human rights. It may even need more resources considering the number of EJKs (extrajudicial killings),” Recto said.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said giving the CHR a budget of P1,000 “would effectively abolish the CHR,” which is clearly contradictory to the constitutional provision mandating the establishment of such agency.

“Moreover, the Commission serves as an important check and balance to ensure that government officials exercise their functions with due respect for the constitutional rights of the people,” Gatchalian said.

Senators Joel Villanueva, JV Ejercito, Sonny Angara, and Francis “Chiz” Escudero are also backing the restoration of the CHR’s budget.

The separate versions of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) will still be scrutinized in the bicameral conference committee. —ALG, GMA News