During a speech in Davao City last Saturday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte once again slammed the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chief Chito Gascon.
The president suggested that Gascon is focused on the recent teenage deaths linked to the war on drugs because Gascon is a pedophile.
“Why are you so into teenagers? Are you? Now I’m doubting. Are you gay or a pedophile? You’re so focused on that,” Duterte said. “You are so fixated with the death of young males,” he also said.
In a statement released last Friday, the CHR said that they are “deeply disturbed” by the recent deaths of minors.
“Our children deserve better treatment. They ought to be given food and nourishment, not bullets in their bodies; they should be resting on clean, safe shelters, not lying cold in the streets; they need care and protection, not a life of violence,” the statement said.
These deaths refer to the killings of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, 19-year-old Raymart Siapo, and 16-year-old Grace Omadlao, who died in drug and non-drug related incidents.
In a radio interview with DZMM, Gascon said this morning that the president’s words were unfortunate and hurtful and that he hopes the president could withdraw the statements.
“…I still hope that we can elevate the level of our discussions and debates,” he said.
In another speech last Wednesday, Duterte falsely said that Gascon is not a lawyer and criticized the way he ran the CHR.
But Gascon is, in fact, a lawyer. He was accepted into the Philippine bar in 1997, graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law and took his Masters in International Law at the University of Cambridge.
Last Tuesday, Congress voted to give the CHR a PHP1,000 (US$ 20) budget next year, essentially gutting the human rights commissions’ funding.
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