MANILA, Philippines (Updated 2:03 p.m.) — On Tuesday evening, 119 members of the House of Representatives voted to give the constitutional Commission on Human Rights a measly budget of only P1,000.
1SAGIP party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, a member of the House supermajority, forwarded the motion to slash the budget of the CHR. Only 32 lawmakers voted against his motion.
Marcoleta was a member of the "Legitimate 8" House bloc — a group of lawmakers that questioned Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez's designation as minority floor leader — before joining the supermajority in October last year.
According to a Rappler report, the party-list lawmaker may have left the minority after Iglesia Ni Cristo, of which he is a member of, asked him to join the supermajority led by President Rodrigo Duterte's PDP-Laban.
Marcoleta used to be representative of Alagad party-list, which no longer has a seat at the House. 1SAGIP, or SAGIP, claims to be working for a "pro-poor republic" through working for universal healthcare, the use of idle government land for housing projects, protection of the environment, accessible education and by being "the voice of its constituents in expressing their legitimate grievances, particularly in clamoring for legitimate social protection."
As a member of the House majority, Marcoleta is a member of the following committees, according to the House website:
- Banks and Financial Intermediaries
- Basic Education and Culture
- Energy
- Good Government And Public Accountability
- Justice
- Legislative Franchises
- Public Information
- Rural Development
- Trade And Industry
- West Philippine Sea
'Selective CHR'
In a telephone interview with CNN Philippines, Marcoleta said that he does not want the CHR abolished.
READ: House gives CHR a P1,000 budget
"Ang ibig ko lamang sana 'yung mandate talagang ituon talaga sa lahat ng mga tao, hindi sila selective," Marcoleta said.
Marcoleta said that the CHR failed to produce reports on the human rights violations committed by the Maute Group and the Abu Sayyaf Group.
"Did the CHR, on its own, investigate the extent of human rights violation of the Maute group on the affected civilian population?" Marcoleta said during the House session Tuesday.
"Did the CHR, on its own, investigate the propensity of their (Abu Sayyaf Group) despicable and incorrigible acts with the view of documenting the extent to which their human rights have been desecrated?" he added.
In an infographic released by the CHR last July, the commission stressed that their core principle is to protect the rights of the people from abuse by state agents such as the government, the police and the military.
"Kapag sibilyan o pribadong tao ang nang-rape, pumatay, at iba pa, ito ay krimen. Sa pulis ka dapat pumunta (When a civilian or private person commits rape, murder and others, it is a crime. You should go to the police)," the infographic read.
Under Section 17, Article XIII of the 1987 Constitution, the CHR is mandated to "Investigate, on its own or on complaint by any party, all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights."
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