Restoration of CHR budget is ‘the people’s win’

LP said the restoration of the CHR budget on Wednesday was timely, noting that it was a celebration of victory a day before the 45th year of the declaration of martial law on Thursday.
(ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA— Members of the Liberal Party (LP) on Thursday welcomed the decision of a House of Representatives (HOR) to restore the original budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), describing it as “the people’s win.”

“The restoration of the CHR budget is the people’s win. It is a win for human rights, for collective action, and for truth and reason,” the LP said in a press statement.

LP said the restoration of the CHR budget on Wednesday was timely, noting that it was a celebration of victory a day before the 45th year of the declaration of martial law on Thursday.

The party added that there was a great number of Filipinos that expressed their outrage against what they described as a “jarring decision” of the House to grant the CHR a measly budget of PHP 1,000.

“Thousands of citizens called, emailed, tweeted, messaged their representatives asking for an explanation of their vote,” the LP said.

Moreover, the party said many, including young people, emailed their senators asking for support against the budget cut.

Senators also expressed their opposition and vowed to correct the unacceptable appropriation.

“All these combined pressured the Lower House to restore the budget of the CHR,” the LP said.

“This is how democracy works. This is People Power, millennial version in the age of social media,” the party added.

The House earlier reduced the budget of the three agencies to just PHP1,000 each as lawmakers expressed their displeasure over the offices’ performance. Originally, the CHR has a proposed 2018 budget of PHP649.484 million.

Meanwhile, the House also restored the budgets of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) which were also earlier defunded with a PHP 1,000 budget.