CHR getting meager budget sends bad signal to foreign investors—JFC member

Members of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines hold a press conference at the sixth Arangkada Philippines Forum in Pasay City. Photo by Pathricia Ann Roxas/INQUIRER.net

A member of the Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce (JFC) warned on Thursday that the House of Representatives’ approval of a measly P1,000 budget to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for 2018 sends a bad signal to foreign investors.

Guenter Taus, JFC member and president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), said that the country needs to send the right signals to prove that the Philippines is “the destination of choice” for investors.

“We need to send the right signals out that we are the destination of choice. ‘Cause in my opinion if you really want sustainable growth, it is not enough to just build, build, build because build, build, build will end at one point in time,” Taus said in a press conference during the JFC’s Arangkada Philippines forum in Pasay City.

“… (With) the budget of $20 for the human rights commission, I don’t think we’re sending the right signals,” he added.

On Tuesday, the lower house slashed CHR’s budget to P1,000 after 1-Sagip Representative Rodante Marcoleta criticized the agency’s failure to investigate rights violations committed by criminals and terrorists.

READ: House gives Commission on Human Rights P1,000 budget for 2018

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez also previously threatened to give a zero budget to the commission for “always criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte’s government.”

Meanwhile, the ECCP leader underscored that aside from the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build Program,” which aims to usher the golden age of infrastructure in the country by 2022, the government should also look at long-term solutions that will create jobs for Filipinos.

“We have to encourage all the industries here now. We still want to attract them to stay here and move forward and see that we build the much needed jobs that we’ve been promising people. Because it doesn’t help that you have infrastructure projects this year and then what’s next?” Taus said.

The country’s leaders, Taus said, should also plan for sustainable growth that “goes with political stability, as well as the peace and order.” /jpv