Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel lagman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JAM STA ROSA
MANILA, Philippines – Albay First District Rep. Edcel Lagman has renewed the call for the appointment of commissioners for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) during the agency’s budget hearing on Thursday.
“Hoping that the administration will appoint veritable human-rights advocates in the Commission on Human Rights,” said Lagman.
Lagman stressed the importance of honesty among the appointees, saying that it would be difficult for the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to find an advocate with integrity.
“If the present administration is looking for a person, or persons who have credentials of human-rights advocacy, but who are willing to compromise their principles, then it will be a difficult search. It is just like looking for a needle in a haystack,” the lawmaker said.
Lagman issued the statement after Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, vice chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, asked if all the commissioner positions were vacant.
“They are appointed by the Office of the President, and currently we don’t have the commission en banc… all our chairpersons and commissioners retired last May 7. They enjoyed a full term of seven years,” said CHR Executive Director Jacqueline Ann de Guia.
READ: Terms of all human rights commissioners expire
According to De Guia, the CHR has contacted Malacañang about the vacancy.
“We do hope that there will be an executive issuance, a decree, or a legislation that will highlight that there is a process, that it is transparent, highly consultative with broad participation from the public, as well as from all stakeholders,” said de Guia.
Lagman expressed disappointment that a chair and commissioners had not been appointed, drawing parallels between the situation and the absence of a health secretary.
“It is really an unfortunate coincidence, that those who are ministering to the victims of the pandemic and other diseases, do not have a permanent secretary in the Department of Health. And those who are ministering, to the victims of human rights violations do not have stewards in the human rights commission, like the chairman and the other commissioners,” said Lagman.
A veteran lawmaker, Lagman had authored several bills to protect human rights, including the Anti-enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act and the Human Rights Defenders Bill.
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