Marcoleta wrong in questioning CHR’s creation by Cory —experts

The party-list congressman who moved that the Commission on Human Rights be given a P1,000 budget for 2018 was wrong when he said then President Corazon Aquino "invalidly" created the CHR in 1987, one of the framers of the constitution and two legal experts said on Monday.

One even said Congress could not appropriate a thousand-peso outlay for the CHR as it would be tantamount to defunding a constitutional body.

"EO 163 was promulgated on May 5, 1987 before the election of the Congress and its convening in July [of the same year]. President Cory's EO was issued when she still had legislative powers," Christian Monsod, a member of the commission that drafted the charter, told GMA News Online.

Lawyers Antonio La Viña and Marlon Manuel agreed with Monsod, citing Article 18, Section 6 (Transitory Provisions) of the Constitution which said: "[The] incumbent President shall continue to exercise legislative powers until the first Congress is convened."

Before proposing a P1,000 budget for the CHR, Marcoleta said in the House plenary debates that EO 163 was passed when the 1987 Constitution had already been ratified and Aquino no longer had legislative powers.

"EO 163, which was issued on May 5, 1987 is invalid because that that time, Mrs. Cory Aquino, the president of the Philippines has already lost her legislative powers," Marcoleta said.

"Mr. Speaker, how can we appropriate budget to an agency which has not been validly created? I move that we assign only a P1,000 budget for the CHR," he added.

"The EO was to implement the constitutional provision that created an independent CHR and in accordance also with the provision that the term of office and qualifications and disabilities of the members of the commission would be provided by 'law.' The Constitution did not say 'the Congress,'" Monsod said.

Manuel added that the CHR was created under Article 13, Section 17 of the Constitution and that the EO "merely declared the effectivity of the creation."

La Viña, meanwhile, said Congress could not appropriate P1,000 for the CHR as doing so would be tantamount to defunding an office created by the Constitution.

"Congress can reduce its budget since the CHR does not have the same status as the Commission on Elections, etc [constitutional commissions that shall enjoy fiscal autonomy] but not to the extent that it can no longer function," La Viña said.

The CHR has been at the receiving end of criticism from President Rodrigo Duterte and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez after the agency expressed concern over the rising death toll in the administration's war on illegal drugs.

Alvarez even went to the extent of accusing the CHR of protecting the rights of criminals instead of the victims.

Among the CHR's powers and functions under the Constitution are to investigate all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights, monitor the Philippine government's compliance with international treaty obligations on human rights and provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights of all Filipinos both here and abroad.

"Actually, the CHR has the mandate to address all forms of human rights violations. But its priority should rightly be state actors," La Viña said in a text message.

"The Constitution's mandate for CHR is mainly civil-political rights, and in this area it is the State that is the duty bearer. Killings done by criminals are crimes within the primary authority and jurisdiction of the police and justice system," added Manuel.

Alvarez had said the House was firm on its decision to slash the budget of the CHR despite public outrage and the position of majority of the senators to fight for the enactment of CHR's P678-million proposed budget for next year.

The House and the Senate can break the impasse in the bicameral conference committee wherein select lawmakers would have to agree on a single version of the budget bill, which they will ratify, before it is sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his signature. —NB, GMA News