House restoring budget of CHR, ERC, NCIP

The House Committee on Appropriations has been given the green light to endorse the restoration of the budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) after the heads of the three agencies appealed to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, panel chairman Rep. Karlo Nograles (Davao City, 1st District) said last night.

The breakthrough was achieved after CHR Chairman Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon, ERC Commissioner Geronimo Sta. Ana, and NCIP Chair Leonor Oralde Quintayo sought the help of House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Nograles to act as bridge between them and Alvarez.

The three agencies have been dubbed the “1,000-Peso Club” after they were given an appropriation of R1,000 each for 2018 by the House of Representatives during last week's plenary deliberations on

the proposed R3.767-trillion national budget or General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for next year.

Nograles said that during the meeting, Gascon agreed that the CHR should extend its investigations beyond human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by state agents to also include other groups who victimize members of the police, the military and even civilians.

“The Speaker basically told Chairman Gascon that we are not the enemy. The Duterte government is not the enemy. We are one with the CHR in the fight against all forms of human rights violation but they must start looking also at the violations committed by criminals and insurgents,” Nograles said.

As for the ERC and the NCIP, Nograles said that Speaker Alvarez and Majority Leader Fariñas secured their assurance that they would start taking all the necessary steps to fight graft and corruption and to carry out the full mandate of their office.

“The dialogue was very frank but cordial. In the end, the Speaker was magnanimous in his decision and gave the green light to restoring their budget,” Nograles said.

With this development, Nograles said the restoration of the budget for the CHR, the ERC, and the NCIP would already be incorporated in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 3rd and final reading approval by the House in plenary.

The initial proposed budget of the CHR is R623.38 million; ERC, R365 million; and NCIP, R1.132 billion.

House members had earlier moved to slash their budgets to R1,000 each over questions on the performance of their respective mandate.

Nograles and Fariñas are members of the “small committee” which has been given plenary powers to introduce amendments in the GAB after it was approved on 2nd reading last week.