The Senate finance committee approved on Monday the proposed P678-million budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for 2018 despite a solon’s call to give the agency a zero budget.

The approved 2018 budget, which includes a P28.565-million budget for the Human Rights Violations Victim’s Memorial Commission, was P47 million lower than its P724.9 million budget for 2017.

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

CHR chair Chito Gascon insisted, meanwhile, that the CHR should be supported by lawmakers especially during these “trying times.”

“Given the trying times hindi po talaga dapat bawasan o gawing zero, bagkus ay lalong suportahan,” Gascon said during the Senate finance committee hearing.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the finance subcommittee, and Senator Risa Hontiveros both assured that the Senate will support CHR.

“You will not meet that same fate here in the Senate,” Hontiveros told Gascon, citing Alvarez’s threats to CHR.

“In that case, approved na sa committee level, and we wish you good luck,” Lacson told the CHR representatives present at the hearing./je

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