Replacement of chief public attorney sought

MANILA, Philippines - The Career Executive Service Board is seeking the ouster of Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta and her deputies allegedly because they lack CES requirements.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters at a press conference yesterday that the CES Board sought the legal opinion of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the matter.

In response, the DOJ said Acosta and her deputies are not fit for their posts, which require CES qualification.

In a legal opinion dated Jan. 3 and signed by Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras, the DOJ said the appointments of the Public Attorney’s Office chief and other top officials of PAO “are without merit” because “they do not possess the required CES right to security of tenure even if it was expressly guaranteed to them by the PAO law.”

“The positions of the Chief Public Attorney, Deputy Chief Public Attorney and Regional Public Attorneys are part of the CES. It is required by law that they should be CES eligible to become permanent appointees to the position,” the DOJ explained.

The DOJ suggested Acosta and her deputies take the Civil Service exam to get CES officer eligibility.

“Considering that the appointments of the Chief Public Attorney, Deputy Chief Public Attorneys and Regional Public Attorneys are temporary, they are required to subsequently take the CES examination.

“In the absence of any evidence that would show compliance with the said condition, it is presumed that the top-level officials of the PAO are non-CES eligible; therefore, they may be removed from office by the appointing authority without violating their constitutional and statutory rights to security of tenure,” the DOJ said.

PAO is an attached agency of the DOJ that provides indigent litigants free legal assistance.

Asked for her reaction, Acosta said she would stay in her post stressing that they have already addressed the issue in an earlier letter to the DOJ.

She also cited Republic Act 9406 (the new law reorganizing PAO), which provides that they need not be subjected to appointment requirements.

“Under the new law, incumbent positions need not be reappointed,” she said.

Acosta added that her position has the same salary grade 31 as a Cabinet secretary, which does not require CES qualification.

De Lima, for her part, said she has not reviewed the legal opinion yet -- which means it is not yet final and official.

“I am still reviewing it, because PAO chief Acosta wrote a letter asking me to set aside that opinion. It’s a legal issue,” she said.

Acosta, who also leads the team of lawyers of Lauro Vizconde, whose wife and two daughters were killed in 1991, is also being questioned by Hubert Webb, who claims that the PAO, being an attached agency of the DOJ, does not have the authority to prosecute a criminal case.

Webb, the primary suspect in the Vizconde massacre, and six others were acquitted from the murder case by the Supreme Court last month.

Last year, Acosta also facilitated the release of two soldiers convicted in the killing of the father of President Aquino, the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and his alleged gunman Rolando Galman.