MANILA, Philippines—The government's champions of human rights are to let their hair down in a hugely popular noontime show to reach out to the masses in the run up to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10.

The CHR team led by its chairwoman, Leila de Lima, will appear in the December 9 episode of "Wowowee" aired on ABS-CBN Channel 2.

"We had a taping (last Monday) and we had to do what we were required to do by Willie Revillame!" a giggling De Lima, a feisty election lawyer prior to her appointment as CHR head, told reporters on Wednesday. Revillame is the show's host.

"The sacrifices we have to make!" piped in Commissioner Cecilia "Coco" Quisumbing, a former broadcast journalist.

Aside from the two women, Commissioners Norberto de la Cruz and Maria Victoria Cardona, and around 20 CHR employees participated in the show's games.

De Lima said the Wowowee appearance was part of the CHR's media blitz for the anniversary of the human rights declaration. The CHR coined the theme "May 'K' Ako!", where the letter K stands for "Karapatan".

Quisumbing said that Filipinos should feel doubly proud of the universal human rights declaration because the Philippines helped draft document and was one of first members of the United Nations to sign it 1948, represented by the late statesman Carlos P. Romulo.

Generally, Quisumbing said, Filipinos are aware of the CHR but still "lack (the knowledge) that we have duties to promote human rights".

"One reason why we need to (promote) human rights is so that people will demand it and live up to their responsibility.... Human rights is not a blank check. We also have a responsibility to build a society and a world," Quisumbing said.

Wowowee continues to click among the C-D crowd mostly because of the quick cash that contestants are eager to win in the show's zany games and Revillame's mass appeal.

The stampede that killed scores of Wowowee fans in its anniversary two years ago hardly affected the show's ratings.

The show has even created a niche in Filipino communities abroad. Balikbayans and their foreign spouses or friends not only watch it live at the studio or join the contests but also hand out dollars as part of the cash prizes that Revillame gives away.

Quisumbing said it would have been nice if some trivia about the universal declaration and human rights issues in general were included in the show's contests but "it just wasn't possible" because of its format.

However, she said, the exposure of the CHR will have through Wowowee was more than enough for now to make more Filipinos aware of the agency and the importance of the 60-year-old Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"We didn't win a lot of cash prizes but we did win millions of eyes and ears," Quisumbing said.