PAO lawyers deny call for chief’s suspension

Signed by 109 PAO lawyers from its various services and divisions, the legal counsels issued a manifesto in response to an anonymous letter claiming to be from PAO lawyers, accusing Acosta of manipulating the purchase orders of supplies of the office. (File Photo: Presida V. Rueda-Acosta/Facebook)

MANILA — Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) lawyers on Thursday denied seeking the suspension of their head, Persida Rueda-Acosta, before the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) for alleged irregularities in the agency’s finances.

Signed by 109 PAO lawyers from its various services and divisions, the legal counsels issued a manifesto in response to an anonymous letter claiming to be from PAO lawyers, accusing Acosta of manipulating the purchase orders of supplies of the office.

The letter was filed by Wilfredo Garrido Jr. as supplement to his complaint against Acosta and PAO forensics chief Erwin Erfe before the OMB over allegations that the PAO Forensic Laboratory was created without authority from Congress.

“It is a demolition job; an affront to the independent and integrity of the PAO,” the manifesto read.

The PAO lawyers also assured that “we have no participation nor authorship of the alleged manifestation.”

“Again, we have no part in the execution and submission of the subject manifestation as the writer maliciously would like to impress upon the Office of the Ombudsman and the general public,” the PAO lawyers added in the signed manifesto.

The PAO lawyers said “the manifestation was fabricated by someone else; unscrupulous person/s who resort to shady schemes and strategies to advance their personal cause.”

The PAO lawyers also condemned the acts of desperate persons employing deceit and dragging otherwise innocent persons in their plan to discredit the office PAO by using bogus documents.

“Lawyers and government officials must always resort to lawful means and processes in advancing their cause for it is a basic principle in law that ‘one who seeks equity and justice must come to court with clean hands’,” they said.