A GROWING number of new bar passers and young lawyers have joined the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in their desire to serve indigents and the underprivileged who have no access to legal representation and assistance, PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said Monday.
Rueda-Acosta said she was overjoyed upon learning that more lawyers, especially those who passed the bar exams last year, have shown interest to be part of PAO.
She noted the demoralizing conditions of PAO lawyers and the agency itself when she assumed its top post nearly 25 years ago. For one, its budget barely covered personnel salary and operational expenses.
“But now, our public attorneys have been focused on their job in extending all legal services to the Filipino indigents 24 hours or without let-up because they have been receiving high salary aside from benefits and extra allowances,” she said.
Rueda-Acosta has been credited for introducing various programs and reforms in the agency, having pushed for the passage of Republic Act 9406, which reorganized and strengthened the PAO, which used to be called the Citizen’s Legal Assistance Office, which was under the Department of Justice (DOJ).
A survey in 2021 conducted by the Social Weather Stations showed that among professionals in the justice sector, PAO lawyers emerged as the most trustworthy with a 58-percent rating, followed by private lawyers with 43 percent, judges at 37 percent trust.
“It only goes to show that despite intrigues, although only from few numbers of people who may have hidden interests, the final judges are the people who believed in the sincerity and genuineness of PAO in extending much-needed legal support to them,” Rueda-Acosta said.
During a ceremony last month, she and other key officials — Deputy Chief Public Attorney Ana Lisa Soriano and Deputy Chief Public Attorney Erwin Erfe — led the orientation and oath-taking of 146 new PAO lawyers, 61 of them 2024 bar passers.
Some 38 non-lawyers also took their oath and underwent an orientation seminar along with the public lawyers.