The news account that Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Chito Gascon committed to investigate atrocities perpetrated by non-State actors like terrorists and rebels in order to secure the restoration of the slashed CHR budget is blatantly false news.

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman said that he is certain Gascon neither promised nor undertook to make such investigations which are not within the jurisdiction of the CHR.

The CHR is mandated to investigate all human rights violations involving civil and political rights which are transgressed by the State, agents of the State, and private parties authorized or tolerated by the government.

Lagman further said that Gascon would never dilute or abandon the clear mandate of the CHR pursuant to the 1987 Constitution, international instruments like the covenants against torture and protection of all persons from enforced disappearance, and domestic laws like the anti-torture statute (RA No. 9745) and the anti-disappearance law (RA No. 10353) wherein the culprits are the State and its agents.

Lagman added that this fake news is merely a face-saving alibi after the CHR’s budget was restored following terrible backlash against House leaders and the supermajority from civil society, netizens and ordinary citizens.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN