love month in iskup news-on-line daily
4 months to EMMANUEL
PACQUIAO 22
12 days to fire prevention month March
Klinpix Janitorial and Pest Control Services is hiring riders with units of college or equivalent in non-formal training, 09438144995, 09916444376
The National Telecommunications Commission warned watching public to withold any information to anyone offering job, it is scam.
PDU30 appoints Armamento as new CHR chair
By J.Lo
FOLLOWING untimely death of Commission of Human Rights (CHR) head Jose Luis Martin “Chito” Gascon CHR has a new chairperson.
Commissioner Leah Tanodra-Armamento is now set to lead the organization and serve Gascon’s unexpired term until May this year. Gascon succumbed to COVID-19 in October last year.
Tanodra-Armamento is part of the CHR’s Fifth Commission en banc, that also include Commissioners Karen Gomez-Dumpit, Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, and Roberto Eugenio Cadiz.
Before working at the CHR, Tanodra-Armamento was an Associate Solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor-General, where she assisted the solicitors in habeas corpus cases.
She then moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 1991 and moved her way up from State Prosecutor to Senior State Prosecutor, the CHR said.
In 2003, Tanodra-Armamento was appointed as DOJ Assistant Chief State Prosecutor, and later became DOJ Undersecretary.
She got her law degree from Ateneo De Manila University School of Law. She was also a fellow of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2007.
Gascon 57, has passed away,on October 2021.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, without mentioning Gascon in a tweet, said the human rights leader supposedly gave up his bed in a hospital so that other COVID-19 patients could use it.
“Before he died, he asked to be taken home so that others can use his hospital bed,” Leonen said in a tweet.
“This is what being a human being looks like, a true leader,” he added.
Gascon was appointed to the rights body in 2015 by then president Benigno Aquino III. At the change of administration, he fought rights abuses in the Philippines, including alleged extrajudicial killings in the drug war.
In a speech in 2017, he said: “We have entered a period of darkness, the sun is gone, night has fallen.”
Gascon was a political activist and social reformer whose work for over three decades focused on human rights, democracy and governance.
In a statement, CHR said Gascon upheld the body’s mandate “courageously and steadfastly” amid assaults hurled against him and their agency.
A panel in the House of Representatives in 2017 voted to pass a P1,000 budget for the commission, as lawmakers criticized the institution for supposedly “not upholding the human rights of everyone” and not going after criminals.
In the same year, President Rodrigo Duterte also insulted Gascon for his human rights efforts and for denouncing his drug war.
Despite these, however, Gascon’s leadership flourished and “has inspired and nurtured a culture of enabling, empowering, and safe environment, amidst unrelenting attacks against the institution and to him personally, he was unwavering and unflinching in fighting for the universal values of freedom, truth, and justice that are essential in the pursuit of human rights” CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline De Guia said.
Many people also looked up to him as a mentor and helped many people, she added.
The Federation of Free Workers also condoled with Gascon’s family. Its president Sonny Matula said he had known Gascon since he was a student leader and that the latter walked with the group in many rallies and pickets.
“Godspeed Chito Gascon to the great beyond!” Matula said in a statement.
Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes said they are grieving with the human rights community, noting Gascon’s push for accountability despite intimidation under the Duterte administration.
“We thank him for his valuable contribution to the struggle for justice and the full realization of basic human rights. At a time of escalating state terror, Chito’s voice will surely be missed,” the statement read.
“We pay tribute to his work in the CHR which included supporting the cause of thousands of human rights victims of the Duterte regime, providing a safe space and sanctuary for human rights defenders, and amplifying the call for accountability over the reign of terror and impunity under this regime,” Reyes added.
The Department of National Defense also expressed their condolences to the official’s family, as they recognized his work for human rights causes.
“The DND recognizes the great work done by the CHR under Chairman Gascon in the implementation of human rights laws. He will be missed,” Sec. Delfin Lorenzana said.
Lawmakers Lito Atienza, Carlos Zarate, and Sarah Elago also praised the peace worker’s sincere fight for human rights, with Atienza describing him as “a genuine freedom fighter, rights defender and a true Filipino patriot.”
“The Filipino people, especially the youth, will forever be grateful for your manifold contributions to building a just and humane society,” Elago said.
“It is truly saddening to note that another untiring human rights advocate and defender left us during this challenging times of pushing back tyranny,” according to Zarate.
The Liberal Party (LP) also mourned the official’s passing. Gascon served as director-general of the party from 2008 to 2011.
ISKUP! 