House panel favors giving CHR more teeth

State agencies have opposed some provisions of proposed laws to expand the powers of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), including granting the constitutional body the authority to prosecute offenders.

In a hearing on Tuesday at the House of Representatives, human rights committee chair and Zambales 2nd District Rep. Cheryl Deloso-Montalla said the CHR had her committee’s “unwavering support” despite Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s threat last week not to allocate funds for it in the 2018 budget.

“With the threat of zero budget and abolition of the commission, the future seems bleak for human rights,” she said.

CHR chair Chito Gascon said despite the Speaker’s “weighty” statement, “We believe truth and reason will prevail.”

Tuesday’s hearing tackled bills filed by Representatives Rene Relampagos (Bohol), Gary Alejano (Magdalo), Lawrence Fortun (Agusan del Norte), Evelina Escudero (Sorsogon) and Gus Tambunting (Parañaque City).

The bills would allow CHR to prosecute human rights violations—instead of only investigating them—and suspend nonimpeachable officials pending investigation.

They would also provide fiscal autonomy to the CHR and give it its own charter to replace Executive Order No. 163, which created it in 1987.

State Counsel Gisela Mendoza expressed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)  “strong reservations on the prosecutorial functions of the CHR.”

She said the DOJ, which is the government’s chief investigative and prosecutorial arm, would elaborate on its stance in a position paper.

Police Supt. Veronica Peñalosa, chief of Policy Capability Development Division of the Philippine National Police Human Rights Affairs Office, opposed a proposal allowing CHR personnel to inspect government agencies, military installations, schools, prisons and detention facilities without prior notice.

She also opposed a proposal that would give no statute of limitations to the investigations of human rights violations.

Peñalosa was against denying a “human rights clearance” to a public official unless a case against that official had been decided with finality.

Undersecretary Severo Catura of the Presidential Human Rights Committee questioned the need for the bill filed by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate defining the rights of “human rights defenders” and protecting them.