MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights yesterday announced the appointment of Commissioner Leah Tanodra-Armamento as new CHR chief.
Armamento replaced Chito Gascon, who passed away in October due to COVID. She will complete Gascon’s unexpired term until May 5.
A former undersecretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Armamento was appointed CHR commissioner by the late president Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
She and Gascon are members of the CHR’s Fifth Commission en banc, which also includes Commissioners Karen Gomez-Dumpit, Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana and Roberto Eugenio Cadiz.
Armamento was an associate solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General before her transfer to the DOJ, where she became prosecutor.
In 2003, as assistant chief state prosecutor, she chaired the government’s legal panel that reviewed the implementation of the 1996 final peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front.
Armamento finished her Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo de Manila University. She was a fellow of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2007.