PAO to hire 500 additional lawyers

MANILA, Philippines - The poor and the oppressed would have better chances of getting a fair trial once the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) hires additional 500 lawyers next year.

PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta made the assurance given by during the 4th Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Accredited Convention of PAO lawyers held at the Manila Hotel yesterday.

At present, there are only 1,500 PAO lawyers nationwide but this is not enough since there are 2,500 courts that including the Supreme Court and the lower courts.

The ideal ratio is that there should be one PAO lawyer representing indigent complainants and respondents in every court.

“There is a continuing creation of Malacañang (for lawyer positions in PAO). We have the full support of the President in fact our budget for year 2012 would be released in full. There would be no cuts. Our proposed budget is P1.4 billion,” Acosta said.

Acosta said this is authorized under the Republic Act 9406 or the “Act Reorganizing and Strengthening the PAO, Amending for the Purpose Pertinent Provisions of Executive Order no. 292, Otherwise Known As the ‘Administrative Code of 1987’, as Amended, Granting Special Allowance to PAO Officials and Lawyers, and Providing Funds.”

Acosta also boasted of the quality of their public lawyers. She said they have lawyers who are graduates from prestigious law schools including those from Ateneo, University of the Philippines (UP) and San Beda College.

According to Acosta, new law graduates are lining up to get in the PAO.

“The PAO can now afford to offer competitive rates. There are some neophyte private lawyers who are earning P30,000 to P35,000. While the PAO lawyers are getting more or less P70,000 including allowances,” Acosta said.  

Apart from providing a PAO lawyer for every court, they have also assigned “night duty” lawyers and set up a hotline number 929-9436.

“We are like policemen, we have lawyers and a staff assigned at night time. This started after we received reports of inmates being tortured.  This is to make the PAO more accessible and deter torture cases because the public can call on us anytime and report any abuses of human rights violations,” Acosta added.

She assured that the Public Attorney lawyers would continue to be “instruments of the rule of law, justice for the poor and the oppressed.”