Thursday, March 20, 2008
PAO fires lawyers despite ombud plea
THE Chief Public Attorney has terminated the services of non-tenured lawyers assigned at the Cebu City Division, despite the ombudsman’s request for a status quo to give anti-graft investigators time to settle the conflict between the agency’s regional chief and her subordinates.
Lawyer Alfred Oguis, one of the terminated assistant public attorneys, confirmed this yesterday. He said Chief Public Attorney Persida Ruedas-Acosta appointed new lawyers who will formally assume the post Oguis and his fellow lawyers will vacate on Monday.
Other lawyers have called the recruits “midnight appointees” and said that some Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges of Cebu, who signed a manifesto in support of the current batch of public attorneys, don’t know that the public defenders assigned to their salas have been fired.
Sun.Star Cebu made repeated calls to the PAO Regional Director’s Office yesterday. In each call, a staff member said Regional Public Attorney Maria G-Ree Calinawan was on the other line.
Tension prevailed over the Regional Public Attorney’s Office, located at the ground floor of the Marcelo B. Fernan Palace of Justice, since last month.
This after the lawyers and staff of the Cebu City Division signed a petition asking for Calinawan’s transfer outside Cebu.
Among the signatories whose contracts have not been renewed are Oguis, lawyers Luanne Ivy Cabatingan and Rizalina Zozobrado.
Elisa Porio, who heads the division and is a tenured lawyer, has already been ordered transferred to the Office of the Public Attorney in Barili, where she will report to a junior-ranking official.
She still remains in Cebu City because of a restraining order.
The other signatories to the petition include lawyers Irene Ann Caballes, Irish Inabangan, Eleanor Tayad, Graciano Espina, Crispulo Abayon III, Marlon Atillo, Rafael Mativo, Chistine Ligas, Karen Gonzalez, Desiree Joyce Santiago and Edsel Ensomo.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, on the other hand, has expanded its investigation on the Regional Public Attorney’s Office beyond the two formal complaints lodged against Calinawan.
A source close to Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Santiago’s office yesterday said two fact-finding investigations have been launched.
The conduct of a fact-finding investigation is a process the anti-graft office undertakes when it takes cognizance of allegations without a formal complaint. The result of a fact-finding investigation can become the basis to open a formal criminal and administrative docket that, in turn, becomes the basis for a preventive suspension order.
Santiago met with the petitioning lawyers, Calinawan and a representative of Acosta at the anti-graft office last March 11.
During the conference, the lawyers complained that Acosta has not yet acted on their petition but ordered them to explain why they leaked news of the petition against Calinawan to the media. They noted how the order was dated March 5 and was apparently in response to a complaint Calinawan filed against them on the very same day.
Acosta, through Deputy Chief Public Attorney Silvestre Mosing, assured that the petition is being acted upon. It was Mosing who appeared in Acosta’s behalf during the March 11 hearing at the Office of the Ombudsman.
Questions
It was upon Mosing’s assurance that Santiago, while taking cognizance of the existence of the petition, declined to issue a status quo order but instead asked Acosta to issue it.
In their four-page petition, dated Feb. 18, the assistant public attorneys raised several questions. Among these were Calinawan’s alleged control on how the agency’s funds are to be disbursed.
She allegedly replaced an employee, who for years had been in charge of the function, with a confidant – resulting to the funds not reaching the district offices.
They also charged her with issuing disciplinary memoranda on the basis of unsubstantiated information and of purposely embarrassing lawyers and staff members by falsely accusing them with wrongdoing within earshot or in the actual presence of the office’s clients.
The petition is separate from two formal charges a lawyer and a staff member separately filed against Calinawan before the ombudsman. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 20, 2008 issue)
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