TACLOBAN CITY- Indeed the P1,000 budget allocated to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) by the House of Representatives sends them quiver.

Aside from weakening their regulatory functions and obligations, the defunding would mean separation from works of some of their employees, said CHR-8 Director Desiree Pontejos.
The Lower House had earlier slashed the proposed budget of the CHR of P678 million to just a measly P1,000.
The defunding by Congress to the CHR was mainly due to the commission, particularly its chair Chito Gascon, strong opposition on the anti-drug war campaign by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The commission claimed that the campaign is not only brutal but has risen to extrajudicial killings, involving even innocent people to include minors and children.
Pontejos said that his immediate fear on the reduction of the budget of their agency next year is possible layoff among its employees.
CHR in the region has about 27 rank and file employees.
It was learned from Pontejos that the CHR in the region operates on a monthly allocation of P300,000 which mostly goes to the personnel services like salaries of the employees.
“The fear is real. Emotionally, there’s a lot of uncertainty, uneasiness and all are worried about losing our jobs. It’s the way how we feel right now,” Pontejos said.
Pontejos added that the budget cut will weaken the agency to the point where it cannot fulfill its mandate and its other functions.
“It is clear that it could mean layoffs or closing the agency or a combination of the two,” he said.
He hopes that the solons would change their minds and initiate for the restoration of their original proposed budget of P678 million for next year.
Meantime, during her visit in Eastern Samar, Vice President Leni Robredo also expressed her sadness over the reduction of the CHR’s budget.
According to Robredo, the functions of the commission could not be undermined as it serves as the watchdog on the excesses and abuses of state agencies on human rights of the civilians.
“Of course we are not happy with the decision of the House (of Representatives). The Commission on Human Rights is a constitutionally-created body and we all know its history why it was created,” she said during an interview Thursday.
She, however, expressed her elation over the strong rebuke by the public on this decision of the Lower House.
Meanwhile, Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento of Samar’s first congressional district, expressed his opposition to this move by his colleagues.
”I am for the welfare of the employees, especially the rank and file employees of the CHR who are struggling to make their voices heard. And to ensure that every employees earns a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work,” Sarmiento said.
“This budget cut would really affect the vulnerable employees of CHR. Where will the commission gets its funding to pay the salaries of its employees. This will only increase hardship and poverty,” the solon said.
Sarmiento was not around when the House of Representatives, by a vote of 119 against 32, gave the CHR a P1,000 funding during their session held on September 12.
(JAZMIN BONIFACIO with reports JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY- A vocational and technical training building was formally opened in this city which its donors also describing it as a “life skills training facility.”
The two-story building, inaugurated on Wednesday (Sept.13) was donated by the Consuelo Foundation, which is part of its assistance to Tacloban City after it was battered by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013, to a local based nongovernment organization, Streetlight Philippines, Inc(SPI).
SPI, run by Neva and her Norwegian husband Erlend Johannesen, deals with street children and out-of-school youths for the past 14 years now in Tacloban City.
The Consuelo Foundation, named after from Consuelo Zobel Alger and founded in 1988, was among the private sectors that extended assistance to Leyte and Samar when Yolanda pummeled Eastern Visayas.
And one of the beneficiaries of this new training center, located in Barangay Tagpuro which is around 13 kms north from the city proper, is Gladys, 22.
Gladys (whose family name is being withheld on request of the SPI) said that she is happy that she is one of the 56 scholar-beneficiaries of the training center.
She is enrolled in automotive, a work mostly associated with males.
“I just find it challenging and from what I heard, one can easily land a job in automotive as it is one of the in demands both here and abroad,” she said.
Gladys is the third in the brood of six siblings. Their father abandoned them WHEN she was just a baby. Her mother is jobless with her grandmother, on mother side, helping them on their daily needs.
She will train at the facility for six months.
Lawyer Carmela Andal-Castro, managing director of the Consuelo Foundation, said that the facility will not only provide their scholars needed technical and vocational skills ‘but skills for life.’
“In the center, will have continuous training skills among young adults and at risk youths, both vocational technical skills, and values which we call skills for life,” Andal-Castro said.
The facility offers automotive, engine repair and maintenance, welding, and refrigerator and air-conditioning repair.
On the aspect of ‘skills for life,’ the scholar-beneficiaries will be taught on value formation, work ethic, adolescent reformation, health, conflict resolution, leadership and civic engagement.
“We want to equip them with both soft skills and the technical skills to succeed and bring their respective communities and families on higher grounds,” she added.
Norwegian Ambassador Erik Forner, who graced the opening of the facility, expressed his ‘amazement’ to both SPI and Consuelo Foundation for coming up with the facility.
“We’re happy that both Consuelo Foundation has partnered with the Streetlight Philippine Inc. where they can even help more children out of the harms of the streets in Tacloban,” Forner said. (JOEY A. GABIETA/ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY-“Let us join millions of people around the globe in rehabilitating and cleaning our coastal areas, seas, rivers and waterways from marine debris that harm our marine life and ecosystems this International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day, September 16”, says Assistant Regional Director for Management Service and in-charge of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 8 Arturo N. Salazar.
In observance of this year’s International Coastal Clean-up Day, the Conservation and Development Division of the DENR Regional Office and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) will spearhead a clean-up activity along the coast of Panalaron Bay, Cancabato Bay, San Pedro Bay and Mangonbangon River.
The activity will start simultaneously in every designated area at six o’clock in the morning of September 16. After the cleanup, a short program will be held at Plaza Rizal, this city.
Nearly 300 volunteers will join the event. This includes partners from different agencies and civil society organizations such as ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, Let’s Do It! Philippines, Philippine National Police, Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and PCG-Auxiliary, Knights of Columbus, United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), Volunteer for the Visayans, Petron Corporation, Tacloban City Rescue Unit (TACRU), Rotary Club of Kandaya, SEED4Com, the city government of Tacloban and other national and local government agencies.
Information from the EMB states that for this year, an orchestrated cleanup will be conducted by donor-partners of the Adopt-an-Estero/Waterbody Program.
A synchronized coastal cleanup will also be spearheaded by different DENR field offices in other parts of the region.
The EMB also disclosed that recyclable wastes collected from the clean-up will be sold to junk shops. Proceeds will be donated to Tahanang Walang Hagdan, a non-government organization.
“We enjoin the active participation of the public in cleaning-up our waterways especially this International Coastal Clean-up Day and in ensuring a safe and sound environment beneficial to the health and well-being of the community”, says assistant regional director Salazar.
The International Coastal Cleanup Day is being observed annually every third Saturday of September in consonance with Presidential Proclamation No. 470 signed on September 15, 2003 and consistent with Proclamation No. 244 declaring September as National Clean-up Month.(PR)