MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE – 8:13 a.m.) Days after reducing to P1,000 each the budget of three agencies, the House of Representatives on Wednesday announced that it had restored the allocations for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).
In a press release, House Appropriations Committee Chair and Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said his panel “has been given the green light to endorse the restoration of the budget of” the three offices.
Nograles said the “breakthrough was achieved” after CHR Chairman Jose Luis “Chto” Gascon, ERC Commissioner Geronimo Sta. Ana and NCIP Chair Leonor Oralde-Quintayo sought his and House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas’s help “to act as bridge between them and Speaker (Pantaleon) Alvarez.”
Nograles said that during the meeting, Gascon agreed that the CHR should extend its investigations beyond human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by state agents to also include other groups who victimize members of the police, the military, and even 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,” Nograles said.
As for the ERC and the NCIP, Nograles said Alvarez and Fariñas secured the agencies’ assurance that they would start taking all the necessary steps to fight graft and corruption and to carry out the full mandate of their office.
“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.
“With this development…the restoration of the budget for the CHR, the ERC and the NCIP would already be incorporated in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill for third reading approval by the House of Representatives in plenary,” he added.
The slash in the CHR budget drew criticisms from various groups, even as the Senate vowed to restore it. Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin on Wednesday said the “will of the people” made the House change its mind.
“Using the budget as a political weapon against those critical of the administration or to demand submission by heads of agencies to Congress will create gridlocks and will not work for the interest of the people,” he said.
“Given the negative backlash on the leadership of the House and with the Senate restoring the CHR budget to what was originally proposed, they have to backtrack and restore the CHR’s budget due to a strong public clamor,” Villarin added.
Reacting to the restoration of the CHR budget, the Liberal Party called it “the people’s win … a win for human rights, for collective action, and for truth and reason” and noted that “we celebrate this victory” on Thursday, September 21, “the 45th year of the declaration of martial law.”
“This is how democracy works. This is People Power, millennial version in the age of social media. This is our, the people’s, victory,” it said in a statement.
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