ANGELES CITY – The Angeles City Council has unanimously approved an ordinance creating the Barangay Human Rights Committee in every village here.
Ordinance No. 404, series of 2017 was unanimously approved during the regular council session on February 14 and was signed by Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan and acting Vice-Mayor Jericho Aguas on February 22.
Joseph Ponce, author of the ordinance and chairman of the Committee on Human Rights said it will protect the values and dignity of every Angeleño and guarantee full respect for human rights.
He said that the Barangay Human Rights Committee shall be established in every barangay council through a resolution approved by the Sanggunian Barangay.
"The Committee shall conduct information and education campaign for the human rights at the grassroots level, attend to referral cases and coordinate with the human rights officer and document human situations and conditions in the barangay," he said.
Ponce explained that the Barangay Human Rights Committee shall appoint a barangay kagawad as chairman and members of the said committee who will be elected among themselves.
The chairman and members shall have a tenure of one year on their date of election and can be removed anytime by a vote of no confidence by the majority kagawads of the barangay council.
The city legislator said that the barangay council shall provide appropriate funds based on the Committee on Human Rights Action Program and community activities in each yearly budgetary appropriation.
"I have closely coordinated with the Commission On Human Rights in the drafting of this ordinance which is a first in our barangays. It is my hope that this ordinance will safeguard the rights of every Angeleno and for the Barangay Human Rights Committee to take charge and manage the functions of human rights violations that may arise in our community," Ponce added.
He said that the Commission on Human Rights will be conducting seminars and trainings for kagawads who will chair, co-chair and become members of the Barangay Human Rights Committee.
Ponce said that this is the first ordinance that he has passed together with his colleagues in the city council.
"I would also want to thank my fellow councilors, Mayor Ed Pamintuan and Commission on Human Rights Regional Director Jasmin Regina for their support and guidance in making this ordinance a reality," Ponce said. (Chris Navarro)