House slashes Commission on Human Rights 2018 budget to P1,000

September 12, 2017

The House of Representatives slashed Tuesday the budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to P1,000 over their alleged failure to fulfill its mandate of protecting human rights of Filipinos.

The CHR has been asking a P678 million budget under the 2018 P3.767 trillion General Appropriations Bill which is lower than their P749 million budget this year.

At least 119 lawmakers voted to approve the P1,000 budget for the CHR while 32 lawmakers voted against it.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez blasted the CHR for its alleged silence on cases involving victims and accused it of protecting only the rights of criminals. The CHR has been questioning the killings occurring under the government's anti-drug campaign.

"Now, if you want to protect the rights of criminals, you get the budget for that. It's that simple. Why will you ask for a budget from government when you don't do your job," said Alvarez.

The House leadership also reduced to P1,000 the budget of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) following complaints  from militant lawmakers for allegedly not addressing the killings of Lumad people.

Last week, the House of Representatives also slashed the budget of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to P1,000 due to alleged anomalies. DMS