‘Tyranny’: Militant group blasts House’s slashed budget for CHR

Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The House of Representatives’ decision to give the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) P1,000 budget next year was part of the government’s moves to impose dictatorship, a progressive group said on Wednesday.

“This latest incident is part of the growing trend of the Duterte government to impose a dictatorship,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary General Renato Reyes said in a statement.

“It has resorted to EJK’s (extrajudicial killings) as state policy. It has openly attacked institutions such as the Supreme Court and the Ombudsman. It has abandoned peace talks and unleashed all-out war. It is toying with the idea of imposing Martial Law nationwide, on the sham pretext that protests are becoming violent,” he added.

The CHR’s budget, voted by at least 119 lawmakers on Tuesday, showed how the House “sinks to new lows,” Reyes said. The decision of the lower house, he said, also showed that human rights was not a priority under President Rodrigo Duterte’s regime.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier threatened to give the CHR a zero budget for “always criticizing the Duterte government.”

READ: Alvarez wants zero budget for CHR 

“The P1,000 budget for CHR, approved by the Lower House, is a clear statement that human rights is not a priority under the Duterte regime,” Reyes said.

“It is also a warning to institutions providing checks and balance in government. Duterte critics are threatened with budget cuts and operational paralysis,” he added.

READ: House gives Commission on Human Rights P1,000 budget for 2018

Reyes said these incidents should give people a reason to protest as he also urged freedom-loving groups to unite against the “rising tyrant” during the 45th anniversary of the martial law declaration on September 21. /idl