Ex-commissioner Tanodra-Armamento is new CHR chairperson

New CHR Chairperson Leah Tanodra-Armamento (Photo from CHR)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has a new chairperson in former commissioner Leah Tanodra-Armamento, the office announced Wednesday.

Tanodra-Armamento would fill in the office left vacant after former chair Chito Gascon succumbed to COVID-19 last October.

“The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will be under the new leadership of Chair Leah Tanodra-Armamento after her appointment was released on Wednesday, 16 February 2022. Chair Tanodra-Armamento will be succeeding the late Chair Jose Luis Martin ‘Chito’ Gascon,” CHR said in a statement.

READ: CHR chairman Chito Gascon dies after bout with COVID-19

According to the CHR, Tanodra-Armamento has been a part of the office under the present commission.  Prior to working with CHR, the newly-appointed chair used to work for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“The new CHR Chair is not new to the Commission. Chair Tanodra-Armamento was previously a commissioner under the present and Fifth Commission en banc,” CHR said.

“Prior to CHR, Chair Tanodra-Armamento worked for five years with the Office of the Solicitor General as an Associate Solicitor, where she assisted the solicitors in habeas corpus cases. She transferred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and moved her way up from State Prosecutor to Senior State Prosecutor from 1991 to 2003,” it added.

CHR said Tanodra-Armamento also chaired the legal panel during the review of the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

“In 2003, Chair Tanodra-Armamento was appointed as the DOJ Assistant Chief State Prosecutor, where she chaired the legal panel of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) during the 1996 Review of the Final Peace Agreement’s Implementation between GPH and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Thereafter, she was appointed as DOJ Undersecretary,” the CHR said.

“Chair Tanodra-Armamento graduated Bachelor of Laws from the Ateneo De Manila University School of Law. She was also a fellow of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2007,” it noted.

After Gascon died, a lot of tributes poured in for the human rights defender who stood up against the administration, in protest of the bloody war against illegal drugs.  However, the former chair’s death also meant that the top post within CHR was left vacant, with several commissioners within the agency acting as temporary head.

CHR said Tanodra-Armamento will serve the unfinished term of Gascon.

“The new Chair will be serving the unexpired term of the previous CHR Chair. Chair Gascon passed on after succumbing to complications caused by Covid-19 in October 2021,” it explained.

“The appointments of the present Commission en banc—namely, Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit, Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, and Commissioner Roberto Eugenio Cadiz—will expire on 5 May 2022,” it added.

/MUF