By Charissa Luci-Atienza

An opposition lawmaker is calling for the creation of Human Rights (HR) Resource Centers throughout the country to strengthen the Philippines’ commitment to human rights protection and promotion.

MAGDALO partylist Rep. Gary Alejano filed House Bill 8454, mandating the HR Resource Centers to integrate the promotion and protection of human rights in the implementation of the criminal justice system and in the conduct of local governance and local law enforcement.

“The Philippines has a reputation of being an advocate of human rights not only within the Asian region, but also across the world. It is one of the original signatories of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)and has signed, ratified, and acceeded to at least 23 international covenants and treaties with respect to such rights,” he said.

“However, this reputation, since the advent of the present administration, has been tainted with the blood of those who perished under the inhumanity of the war on drugs,” Alejano said.

He also lamented that rampant poverty, which remains largely unabated up to this day, continues to be an affront to the human right to a decent life, food, and shelter, social security and education.

“These realities, therefore, necessitate that we capacitate our people to be better able to address the human rights injustices committed against them by bringing them closer to the authorities specially equipped to assist in such cases,” the partylist lawmaker said.

Under HB 8454, the HR Resource Centers shall be the repository of all human rights concerns at the provincial level.

The HR Resource Centers shall be attached to the Office of the Governor, but the planning, policy-making, and implementation shall be done with transparency and accountability, the bill provides.

According to the proposed Human Rights Resource Center Act, the Centers will be tasked to monitor compliance with international treaty obligations and national legislation on human rights; coordinate with the various government agencies involved in the promotion and protection of various aspects of human rights, as well as with the Presidential Committee on Human Rights; and recommend the enactment of necessary local legislation that will protect and promote human rights in the province.

“At the operational level, the Centers shall be headed by a volunteer lawyer from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) with support staff composed of volunteers from students of law schools who are rendering paralegal services as part of their curriculum requirements, people’s organizations and non-government organizations with credibility in the locality and independent of the local government,” the House Bill 8454 said.

The bill mandates the CHR, in coordination with the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the IBP and human rights NGOs, to prepare the implementing rules and regulations of the proposed Act.