Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante, Jr. on Tuesday, Nov. 15, pitched a lineup of proposed measures forming part of his committee’s legislative priorities in the 19th Congress that “would definitely bear the mark of a rights-based approach to legislation.”
The House Committee on Human Rights, chaired by Abante, held its first organizational meeting with Senior Vice Chair Manila 4th District Rep. Edward Maceda and Vice Chair CIBAC Party-list Rep. Bro. Eddie Villanueva in attendance.
“It is with great honor and pride that this Representation formally commences the legislative work of the Committee on Human Rights for the 19th Congress,” the lawmaker said during their meeting that was also done through teleconferencing.
The legislative agenda of the committee, according to Abante, would reflect a rights-based approach to legislation that seeks to address issues such as extra judicial killings, the red-tagging of human rights advocates, disinformation campaigns, and many other forms of human rights violations in the country.
These priority measures are the Right to Adequate Food Framework, the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act, An Act Prohibiting Racial, Ethnic and Religious Discrimination, and Protection of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.
Also included are the Human Rights Defenders’ Protection Act, the Magna Carta on Religious Freedom, National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, and Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) Implementation and Strengthening.
The two-time House committee chair said that he has not and will not “tolerate any act, directly or indirectly, which transgresses human rights.”
“As a pro-life advocate, I have always maintained that the rights to life, liberty and property are the bedrock of human rights,” Abante said.
The veteran lawmaker explained that as articulated in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Oft-repeated principles of human rights complement this Declaration: human rights are universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.”
At the meeting, Abante also thanked major government stakeholders “for their tireless efforts in support of human rights legislation” and for their active participation in the committee’s meetings and activities in the previous Congress.
Among these agencies were the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the AFP Center for Law of Armed Conflict, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, and the Presidential Human Rights Committee.
Aside from discussing the committee’s legislative agenda for the 19th Congress, the meeting hopes to come up with an overview of the committee’s mandate, systems and procedures and consideration and adoption of rules of procedure.
Major stockholders also briefed the committee on their respective mandates, organizational structures, and priority agenda for the 19th Congress.