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Monday, April 25, 2005
Lack of lawyers still nags Public Attorney's Office
By Raquel C. Bagnol
THE dearth of lawyers is still the biggest obstacle that slows down the movement of cases at the Public Attorneys Office (PAO).
This was bared by PAO-11 Regional Director Ridgeway Tanjili in a recent interview.
"The lack of lawyers to handle the flow of cases that flood our offices everyday is a perennial problem," Tanjili said.
He added that if there are more lawyers, the workload of each lawyer will be lightened and the flow of cases will be faster.
Tanjili said that to date, there are only 13 lawyers at the PAO and they handle cases in 17 courts in the city.
The PAO is mandated to provide free legal services to accused persons who are from the poor and marginalized communities and cannot afford to pay for the services of a private counsel.
Records show that there are approximately 1,000 PAO lawyers nationwide, including some 200 in Metro Manila and their caseload can be extreme particularly as they assist in labor and civil cases as well as criminal cases.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 25, 2005 issue)
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