Wednesday, March 05, 2008 Public attorneys seek ouster of region chief
A PETITION has been signed asking the Office of the President to transfer outside Cebu the head of the Office of the Public Attorney.
The document has been in circulation since last month but people within the agency, whose mandate is to give free legal services to people facing criminal charges, kept it internal.
The document is separate from two anti-graft charges already filed against the same official, lawyer Maria G-Ree Calinawan. However, a source said, the petition does mention the anti-graft charges.
Sun.Star Cebu tried but failed to get Calinawan’s comment.
Supporters of the petition will wear black armbands and gather outside the Palace of Justice this morning. They will also launch a manifesto signing and urge people working in the other agencies within the Palace for their support.
Calinawan, though, isn’t taking the petition against her sitting down.
She has caused the reassignment of two people believed to have supported the petition—Atty. Elisa Porio, the head of the Cebu City District Office, and Ms. Carmelita Dacanay, the agency’s administrative officer.
Chief Prosecuting Attorney Presida Rueda-Acosta, who is based in Manila, authorized the reassignment in an order dated yesterday.
The reassignment, the order read, is made “in the exigency of the service and upon the recommendation of (Regional Prosecuting Attorney) Maria G-Ree Calinawan.”
Porio, who holds the rank of Public Attorney III, is directed to report to the Barili District Office starting March 10, together with Dacanay.
She is “to report directly” to Atty. Crispin Villarino, the new officer-in-charge of the district, who holds the rank of Public Attorney II.
The source said the office’s lawyers have scheduled a meeting to discuss options, among them asking the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to speed up its evaluation of the two anti-graft complaints against the official and to place her under preventive suspension.
Assistant Public Attorney Rizalina Zozobrado filed one of the charges.
According to the source, Calinawan, as early as December last year and without consulting Zozobrado’s direct superior, wrote to the central office and recommended that her contract with the agency not be renewed.
Zozobrado, like other lawyers at the PAO whose length of service has not reached five years, works on a contractual basis.
Zozobrado’s contract with the government ends on March 9.
Allowance
According to the source, Zozobrado attempted to speak with Calinawan about her recommendation and was supposedly told that this was because Zozobrado took part in a tree-planting activity without her consent.
According to the source, this was not true because Porio secured Calinawan’s clearance. Moreover, the source said, the tree-planting activity was done on a Saturday.
Calinawan allegedly also held Zozobrado responsible for a September 2007 letter addressed to the central office, with a copy furnished to the Department of Budget and Management, inquiring into the status of an ordered increase in their Representation and Transportation Allowance (Rata).
The increase was approved as far back as April 2007 but, as of September of the same year, none among the assistant public attorneys got an adjustment.
According to the source, they tried to ask Calinawan but she couldn’t give any information, thus the letter. The source said their verification revealed that all regional directors, Calinawan included, already got theirs.
City meeting
Calinawan also allegedly cited Zozobrado for organizing a meeting with Vice Mayor Michael Rama to ask if public attorneys assigned to handle cases from Cebu City could also get an allowance from City Hall, like what City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon and his assistants are getting.
“What’s wrong with that?” the source asked.
The source believes that Calinawan’s move to have Zozobrado effectively forced out of PAO was personal and began after a meeting that discussed staffing decisions.
The meeting centered on Calinawan’s directive to assign Atty. Desiree Santiago to the Office of the Public Attorney in Bogo, Cebu. The assignment took the form of a lateral transfer instead of a designation as acting head of office.
Because Santiago lives in Talisay and has no place to stay in Bogo, transferring her to the northern town entails additional expenses.
Designating Santiago as head of office would have resulted in a salary differential that would partly cover the cost.
Answer
Instead of acting on the problem, Calinawan allegedly spoke about how people in the office don’t like her, to which Zozobrado supposedly replied: “We don’t have to like each other, we just have to cooperate with each other because we are working in the same office.”
The other, more recent charge was filed by a staff member, Rodolfo Tojino.
Based on the complaint, Calinawan allegedly coerced Tojino to change his answer to a memorandum that required him to explain his failure to endorse to Calinawan a court order for the purpose of preparing an appeal.
Apparently, no appeal was filed, making the decision final.
Tojino, in an interview yesterday, said his original explanation detailed how he was able to make the endorsement within the 15-day period given to him but Calinawan was nevertheless unable to submit one on time.
He said Calinawan came to him with a copy of his own explanation. Portions of the document had been struck out and marginal notes added. He was then instructed to rewrite it.
