The backlash worked.
At least that’s what one lawmaker is saying after the congressional appropriations committee moved yesterday evening to restore the Commission on Human Rights’s (CHR) PHP678 million (US$13.3 million) budget amid a firestorm of negative reaction that accompanied a vote to slash it to just $20 last week.
Akbayan Representative Tom Villarin said in a statement that this shift was influenced by the many Filipinos who spoke out against the planned gutting of the CHR budget.
“Given the negative backlash on the leadership of the House, and with the Senate restoring the CHR budget to what was originally proposed, they have to backtrack and restore the CHR’s budget due to a strong public clamor,” he said.
Villarin was one of the 32 representatives who voted against the motion originally.
But Karlo Nogrlaes, head of the House appropriations panel and a staunch supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, said that restoring the budget came after the CHR promised to broaden its focus beyond the president’s controversial war on drugs.
Since the beginning of the battle over the CHR budget, allies of Duterte — who himself threatened to dismantle the constitutionally mandated body — have insisted that its criticism of the drug war and its mounting death toll has unfairly ignored the actions of criminals and rebel groups.
In a statement, CHR chief Chito Gascon thanked leaders of Congress for upholding the importance of human rights — even if there was a long, winding path to get there.
“We thank the leadership of the House of Representatives for their open mind and open heart in accepting arguments of reason and necessity to continue to fund CHR’s work,” he said.
The new CHR budget will be finalized next week during the third and final reading of the appropriations bill.
