Majority leader Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III slammed the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), advising the authorities composing the independent office to leave their posts if they see that the policies of President Rodrigo Duterte do not align with their standards.
“Because it’s like this, if you are working in a government and you do not want the policies of the leader, then you leave before you criticize him,” Sotto said, referring to CHR Chairperson Chito Gascon.
However, Sotto clarified that he is not calling for Gascon’s resignation but advised him to focus on events where, according to the senator, human rights were actually violated.
“A good move of the CHR would be to deal first with the incidents and not meddle on the policy of the government which is the war on drugs. If that’s what you’re hitting then you’re most likely to be not in good terms and you wouldn’t really be wanted by the congressman,” Sotto said.
According to Sotto, the unceasing condemnation of CHR against Duterte and his drug war led to the decision of the congressmen to cut down the agency’s 2018 budget to P1000.
(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 09/ 14 / 17)