Ang Magiting - The Official Web Site of Rotary Club Makati North

PAO: In Defense of the Innocent

281 days ago

The Week That Was
May 27, 2009

By: Ann Daisy dela Torre

Our speaker for Ann’s Day was a lady: accomplished, articulate, principled and feisty, a wonderful role model for all of us Anns (although perhaps not all our Rotarian husbands will agree to have all of us as feisty as she is).

Atty. Persida V. Rueda-Acosta would have been a doctor if the family did not experience legal problems that convinced her that she could help others better through a career in law. And her present status and her accomplishments suggest that she is indeed achieving that goal. She is Chief Public Attorney of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), an agency mandated to provide free legal assistance to the poor. She carries a Department Secretary rank in government, a promotion resulting from her Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award in outstanding public service.

She restores faith in the government system when she explains the agency’s work and achievements which is what Ann Tonie Lingad prayed for in her invocation, for God’s mercy to shine on those who are “victims of poverty and injustice…and guide all the members of the judiciary that they render justice…”

One fact she pointed out was that by law, under RA 9406 enacted in July 2008, the PAO is independent and autonomous from the Department of Justice even if it is attached to this department for policy and coordination. And that while the agency is primarily tasked to assist indigents, it has provided free legal services to non-indigents when requested by a government official. Some of the celebrated cases their office has successfully defended were Pres. Joseph Estrada’s use of an alias as not illegal, the absence of complicity by 72-year old Elena dela Paz, aide of Nida Blanca, in her murder and SPO1 Ronaldo Pamares Jr.’s innocence in a terrorist’s escape from Camp Crame.

She is a believer in communicating the PAO’s work and accomplishments especially to the President’s office to ensure that these are noted and recognized. A believer in the penal system as a reformative/rehabilitative rather than punitive, they do jail visitations and have extended free medical/dental/optical services to inmates. They have also worked towards decongesting jails by pleading for presidential clemency to release elderly inmates. She later explained that Presidential pardon is an absolute prerogative granted to the office in reply to questions about the release of Jalosjos and Teehankee.

Additionally, Atty. Acosta is proud of her forensics group who are publishing forensic evidence in the Aquino-Galman murder case through the Manila. The forensic evidence points to one shooter: Galman. The book does not tackle the issue of who was the mastermind although Atty. Acosta says that it could not have been Pres. Marcos because he was seriously ill at that time and stops at that…how’s that for suspense!

All together, the meeting was interesting and stimulating and we wish more Anns could have been there as there were only a handful of us: Rose Bortles who emceed the program, Tonie Lingad who led the invocation and national anthem, Choi Reaño, Michelle Washington, and Daisy dela Torre.