Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman refilled in the 18th Congress three (3) of his major bills which were approved on third and final reading by the House of Representatives during the 17thCongress but were not acted upon by the Senate because of lack of time.

These bills are: (1) the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill, which is now House Bill No. 015; (2) the Absolute Divorce Bill (H.B. No. 100); and (3) House Bill No. 101, staying the execution pending appeal of the orders of dismissal/suspension by quasi-judicial bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission.

Press Statements

A satirical and mocking “apology” of foreign affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. to Vice President Leni Robredo does not exculpate him from baselessly insulting the Vice President who criticized his decision to cancel courtesy diplomatic passports issued to former Foreign Affairs Secretaries and ambassadors, instead of protecting a Filipino citizen’s right to travel like in the case of former DFA secretary Albert del Rosiario.

In the News

On the afternoon of May 24, barangay tanod or village watchman Boyet Tuando of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, died in a seedy motel after an encounter with the local police.

The cops’ story: Tuando, whom they tagged as a suspect for attempted rape, tried to fight back during the entrapment operation — “nanlaban” — hence the fatal shooting.

But that claim soon withered when CCTV footage surfaced showing that the unarmed Tuando had been handcuffed and shoved into a red SUV by men in civilian clothes — over an hour before the police operation took place.

Tuando’s family has rejected the police account and is demanding justice. But that call is a long shot; more likely, the case will end up the same way thousands of other similar incidents have fared under the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and crime — nowhere.

Press Statements

No President of a republican democracy deserves to rule for life.

Even the 1987 Constitution limits an elected President to one term of six years.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson was certainly joking that Duterte deserves to be "President for life" if he quickly solves the traffic mess in Metro Manila and flight delays at the NAIA, a presidential promise possibly made in jest.

Press Statements

The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the Human Rights Defenders (HRD) Protection Bill which seeks to prevent human rights violations and abuses perpetrated against HRDs.

Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights recorded the killing of 697 human rights defenders in the country for the period 2001-2018, while Task Force Detainees of the Philippines documented 76 human rights violations affecting 333 HRDs from September 2013 to September 2016 alone.