Brazen

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Friday. September 15, 2017
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THE HOUSE of Representatives’ move to allocate a meager P1,000 budget to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is an attempt to clip the functions of a constitutional body mandated to check on the human rights violations of State actors. This is a sly attempt abolish the CHR and this is dangerous. What the congressmen did undermines available mechanisms for redress for human rights violations in this so-called democratic form of government.

By rendering the CHR irrelevant, is the government also establishing a de facto tyrannical rule, with the people having no recourse to air their grievances before any agency?

Notwithstanding CHR’s many weaknesses and shortcomings in addressing human rights violations, the destruction of what remains a system of check and balances is unacceptable. Many times, we see the CHR as inutile by not acting on numerous grave human rights violations lobbied before it. However, what the congressmen did was a brazen destruction of an institution that acts as a platform to air grievances on violations of people’s rights committed by State security forces.

CHR has been created so people can avail themselves of a domestic mechanism to monitor, document and address problems of human rights violations, abuses and any attempt to suppress the people’s fundamental rights. Giving a meager budget to the CHR while millions are allocated for intelligence funds and war on drugs raises concern on the true objective and motive of this government.

Even Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana says CHR is crucial for “checks and balances.” In an ambush interview at the Senate yesterday, he said the agency keeps the police and military cautious in their actions. Take than from a former Army major general.

Is there a return to tyranny, to dictatorial rule where nobody can criticize the wrongdoings and anti-people policies of the government?

When mechanisms to air grievances on human rights abuses by State security forces are being dismantled and clamped down in rapid pace, to whom will people turn to?
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