COMMISSION on Human Rights chief Jose Luis Martin Gascon on Sunday denied he was working with President Rodrigo Duterte’s political opponents to topple him, and objected to his being called a pedophile.
“That the President again has resorted to name-calling and to using hurtful language against me is unfortunate,” said Gascon, who was in Korea to attend a human rights conference.
“I hope he might choose to withdraw them in order to have a common civic space,” he said.
Gascon said he has “not been involved in any partisan activity” since being appointed to the Human Rights Victims Claims Board in 2014 and since assuming the top post in the CHR.
“I have not [and] will not participate in any destabilization or any other action that would undermine our democratic system,” he said.
“If there may be differences between the positions we take in CHR and that taken by the Executive branch, we hope this be viewed as part of the checks and balance system of Philippine democracy,” he added.
Gascon said increasing reports of human rights violations remain at the top of his concerns, since that is part of his mandate to monitor state compliance with human rights laws.
He scored Duterte’s decision not to share copies of case files held by the Philippine National Police involving deaths related to the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“We’re disappointed that clearance was not given by the President for the police to share with CHR copies of all case folders of deaths resulting from the ongoing war-on-drugs,” he said.
“We still hope to establish a workable mechanism for our respective agencies [CHR and PNP] to cooperate in uncovering the truth about the rising number of deaths in order to assist in securing justice for all victims by ultimately holding all perpetrators of human rights violations to account,” he said.
In a speech in Davao City, Duterte accused Gascon, who was a former director-general for the opposition Liberal Party from 2008 to 2011, of being partisan in doing his job as Commission on Human Rights chairman.
The President also asked the human rights chief if he was a pedophile because of his “fixation” on the young boys being killed in the anti-drug war.
Gascon, appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as CHR chairperson in 2015, has a seven-year term that ends in 2022.
CHR Commissioner Gwen Pimentel-Gana on Sunday defended Gascon and said he was not a pedophile as the President suggested.
In an interview, Gana told radio dzBB Gascon was only concerned about the welfare of minors because they are weak and vulnerable members of the society.
“Pedophile cannot be used… to describe a person who fights for the rights of the less fortunate… I know Chito Gascon is not a pedophile. Definitely not and he is there to fight for the weak and the vulnerable, and the children are actually part of the sector of the weak and the vulnerable. And I think he is doing it from his heart,” she said.
Gana said House leaders should just approach Gascon if they have problems with him.
“I know Chairman Gascon is willing to listen,” she said.
She said holding the CHR hostage, as the House has done by allocating the agency a budget of only P1,000 for 2018, was unreasonable.