The public and rights advocates did not hide their outrage over the House’s move to appropriate $20 in total 2018 funding for the Commission on Human Rights. Although the proposal was approved at the Senate finance committee on Monday, it was not to be in the House as Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez himself claimed that the CHR “failed to fulfill its mandate.”

Gascon said: “We had hoped that both the Speaker and the House Majority would have been persuaded by reason and necessity to allocate an adequate budget to CHR in order for us to effectively perform our constitutional mandate as an independent office to protect human rights.”

Before the budget cut, Congress has expanded the role of the CHR by designating powers and functions in special laws, such as the Magna Carta for Women; the Anti-Torture Law; the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law; and as Ombudsman for children.
The House of Representatives of the Philippines approves a bill that limits the budget of the Commission on Human Rights to only ₱1,000 (US$20).