House appropriations chairman says budget of CHR, two agencies restored

September 20, 2017

The chairman of the House committee on appropriations on Wednesday night said the House leadership has agreed to restore the budget of three agencies, including the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which were originally given a P1,000 outlay for 2018.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, the panel chairman, said his committee has been given the green light to endorse the restoration of the budget of the CHR, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).

This came after the heads of the three offices appealed to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

CHR Chairman Jose Luis Gascon, ERC Commissioner Geronimo Sta. Ana and NCIP Chair Leonor Oralde-Quintayo asked the help of House Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas and Nograles to act as bridges between them and Alvarez.

During the meeting, Nograles said Gascon agreed the CHR should expand its investigation beyond human rights violations allegedly by security forces  to include other groups who victimize the police, military and civilians.

"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," said Nograles.

For the ERC and the NCIP, Nograles said Alvarez and Fariñas got their assurance they would start taking all steps to fight graft and corruption.

"The dialogue was very frank but cordial. In the end, the Speaker was magnanimous in his decision and gave the green light to restoring their budget," Nograles said.

Nograles said restoration of the budget for the CHR, the ERC and the NCIP would be in the final version of the 2018 P3.767 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) scheduled for third and final reading approval by the House of Representatives.

For next year, the CHR has a proposed budget of P678 million while the ERC got an allocation of P650.9 million and the NCIP has an allocation of P1.13 billion.
 DMS