PRESIDENT Duterte has opened a healthy debate about the relevance and necessity of maintaining at taxpayer’s expense a Commission on Human Rights. DU30 started it when he declared during a media interview at the Batasan last Monday that he might seek the abolition of the commission.

We in The Manila Times take an interest in this issue because we have sometimes wondered about the work of the CHR. We wondered when it figured as host in bringing to the country the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) rapporteur Agnes Callamard. We wondered about it when the commission turned in a nothing (nobody’s fault) report on the massacre of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in 2016.

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