Senate delays CHR budget over lack of explicit anti-abortion stance

MANILA, Philippines — The approval of the Commission on Human Rights' budget once again faces a delay as senators, concerned about the CHR’s past calls to examine the impact of the country’s abortion ban on marginalized women, argued that the human rights body must first issue a strong stance against abortion before budget talks can resume.

During Tuesday’s plenary debates of the proposed 2024 national budget, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada made a motion to defer the budget of the CHR, which he had sponsored on the floor. 

“I move that we defer … until they come up with a strong stance against abortion,” Estrada said.

“If they continue to espouse the criminalization of abortion or if they support abortion per se, I'm sorry, I will be unable to defend this budget,” he added.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, who accepted the motion, said that he “would not be able to approve the budget either” pending the CHR’s position on whether abortion should be decriminalized.

This comes after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano expressed concerns about past statements made by CHR Executive Director Jacqueline Ann de Guia that were in support of the decriminalization of abortion. 

The CHR clarified through Estrada that De Guia had made the statement as a spokesperson of the human rights body led by then-CHR Chairperson Chito Gascon. 

As spokesperson of the CHR under Gascon, it was not De Guia’s "personal stand" but the position of the whole CHR, which signed two inquiry reports related to the Reproductive Health law in 2016 and 2019, Estrada said.

“She clarified she does not support abortion, but she supports its decriminalization in so far that it affects the life of the mother,” Estrada said, who was speaking for CHR as its sponsor as part of Senate procedures.

“And according to them, many women die because of unsafe abortions, and it affects the life of the mother,” Estrada added.

Cayetano argued that the 1987 Constitution expressly guards against the approval of any policy reversing the abortion ban.

The senator then pressed the CHR to give a “categorical answer” on its position on abortion. 

“The CHR assures the Senate that there is no position on abortion. The CHR values the right to