Rodrigo Duterte made an extraordinary decision when it’s about the human right in Philippines. Lawmakers supported the move to reduce the HR Commission’s budget to virtually zero, in fact, $24 only.
The Commission on Human Rights has clashed with President Rodrigo Duterte over his bloody war on drugs, and the Philippines leader cut its annual budget to $24, or 1000 pesos. In comparison with the 3.8-trillion-peso national budget looks strange.
The bill passed on second reading yesterday, 119 to 32 in the lower house said yes to it. The critics of Duterte’s bloody regime said a bill was an unconstitutional move to silence the agency for its attempts to investigate thousands of killings of alleged drug users and petty dealers over the past 15 months.
The deadly war on drugs is the subject of criticism, the local and international human rights activists accuse authorities of running vigilante death squads, but the government denies this.
The budget cut now needs to be passed by the Senate, which is dominated by Duterte loyalists, before being sent to the president for a signature. Last year the commission received $14.7 million and it had asked for $34 million in 2018.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that if the budget cuts go through it “would deal a blow against accountability for human rights violations in the Philippines.”
