QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said that the remainder of what was the supposed budget of the Commission on Human Rights can be used to procure state-of-the art body cameras for the police.
President Duterte said that if the proposed CHR budget will not be returned, it can be used to buy new police equipment.
“If you do not want to return the budget to the CHR, why don’t you invest the money to buy equipment for the police, for all policemen in the Philippines?” the President suggested in a speech delivered in Davao City last Saturday.
“Just don’t invade the privacy of the soldiers and the policemen. But you are free to embed and place cameras on the bodies of the law enforcers whenever they go out to operate because the Philippines is a narco-state already,” the President said.
Earlier, the House of Representatives gave the CHR a Php 1,000 budget for 2018.
It was House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who had earlier threatened to cut the CHR’s proposed budget for 2018 from P678 million to just P1,000, saying that commission was more partial to protecting the rights of criminals and terrorists.