Philippine legislators allied with President Rodrigo Duterte have voted to allocate just 1,000 pesos (£15) from next year’s budget to the Commission of Human Rights, the principal government agency criticising his bloody drug war.
Duterte, whose supporters control the lower house of congress, has frequently lashed out at the commission, which has condemned thousands of police killings during his 15 months in office.
House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a close ally of Duterte, said in a television interview that the CHR deserved a small budget for being a “useless” body.
“If you want to protect the rights of criminals, get your budget from the criminals,” he said. “It’s that simple. Why should you get budget from the government and yet you are not doing your job?”
Congressman Edcel Lagman, however, said Duterte’s supporters were “virtually imposing the death penalty on a constitutionally created and mandated independent office”.
The CHR had a budget of 749m pesos (£11m) in 2017 and requested roughly double that for 2018. The budget vote is not final and will require one more vote and senatorial approval.
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the vote “is part of the Duterte administration’s attempt to prevent independent institutions to check its abuses, particularly in the context of the brutal drug war that has claimed the lives of thousands, including dozens of children”.
Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said the new budget was “reprehensible and unconscionable”.
Nicknamed “the Punisher” for his lethal approach to policing, Duterte has previously threatened to abolish CHR, a body he despises for its criticism of his killing campaign, although he later said his threat was a “joke”.
Duterte has said he is “happy to slaughter” millions of addicts and dismissed the deaths of children as “collateral damage”. The European Union has cited “credible reports” that Philippine police falsify evidence to justify extrajudicial killings.
Since the former mayor of Davao city became president last July, government figures show police have killed close to 3,500 “drug personalities”, although activists say these are alleged drug users and suspected small-time dealers.
More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to police data.
Chito Gascon, who heads the CHR, said the vote was an attempt to force his resignation and he would take the issue to the supreme court if necessary.
“The principal reason why I cannot resign my office is that to do so is to weaken the institution itself,” Gascon said.
Reuters contributed to this report
