Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. (PHOTO FROM BENNY ABANTE FACEBOOK)
MANILA, Philippines — Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. has been elected as chairperson of the House of Representatives’ committee on human rights, as the lower chamber of Congress looks to fill in vacancies in the House leadership.
Aside from Abante, Isabela 3rd District Rep. Ian Paul Dy and Cagayan 3rd District Rep. Joseph Lara were also elected to head Committee on Population and Family Relations and Special committee on globalization and World Trade Organization respectively, after Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos made the motion.
Lara will replace Ang Probinsyano party-list Rep. Alfred delos Santos.
Marcos also moved to withdraw the election of Abante as deputy majority floor leader before electing him to head the committee on human rights. As no one objected to the motion, Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th District Rep. Ralph Recto who presided over the session approved the appointments.
Abante, the former minority floor leader during the latter part of the 18th Congress, grabbed headlines recently after he filed a bill pushing for the abolishment of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the government agency tasked to go after the ill-gotten wealth obtained by former president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.
According to Abante, the PCGG has already “outlived its usefulness.” Since the PCGG was established after Marcos Sr. left the country after a bloodless revolution, the agency has retrieved around $5 billion worth of funds obtained from the government’s coffers.