COMMISSION on Human Rights (CHR) Negros Occidental officer-in-charge Romeo Baldevarona said he hopes the Senate will restore the budget of their agency after the House of Representatives voted to give them a P1,000 budget for 2018.

“Our last hope is for the present administration to show respect for the CHR and the International Treaty on Human Rights by giving us the needed budget,” Baldevarona said on Wednesday, September 13.

He added that the people behind the CHR are worried about their jobs and security of tenure, and the mandate of the CHR which is a constitutional institution created under the 1987 Constitution.

“We are worried because we are being politicized. The intervention of politicians is glaring even in our budget especially those at the House committee on appropriation, but we trust the Senate because there is still the bicameral legislation before it will be finally signed,” Baldevarona said.

In Negros Occidental, Baldevarona said they are investigating eight cases of extra-judicial killings related to illegal drugs since January this year.