{"id":227005,"date":"2019-08-15T22:44:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T02:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=227005"},"modified":"2019-08-15T22:44:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T02:44:51","slug":"prrd-still-trusts-pao-chief-amid-corruption-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/15\/prrd-still-trusts-pao-chief-amid-corruption-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD still trusts PAO chief amid corruption claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said pending investigation, Acosta still has the trust and confidence of the President. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Public Attorney\u2019s Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta still has the trust and confidence of President Rodrigo Duterte amid corruption allegations, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Earlier, some PAO lawyers asked the Office of the Ombudsman to preventively suspend Acosta and forensics chief Erwin Erfe over corrupt practices relating to disbursements and allocation of the PAO budget.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said pending investigation, Acosta still has the trust and confidence of the President.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalagi naman si Presidente, hanggang walang<\/em>\u00a0findings of probable cause,\u00a0palaging nandoon iyong<\/em>\u00a0trust (The President has always said the same thing, until there are no findings of probable cause, the trust is still there),\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said if the Office of the Ombudsman finds probable cause, the President will not interfere in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cPero, kung \u2018pag may<\/em>\u00a0probable cause\u00a0na, iba nang usapan iyon<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 then there will be suspension\u00a0galing sa<\/em>\u00a0Ombudsman.\u00a0Eh hindi naman teritoryo ni Presidente iyon<\/em>\u00a0(But if there is probable cause, that\u2019s a different story–then there will be suspension from the Ombudsman. That\u2019s no longer the territory of the President),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if Palace will ask Acosta to file a leave of absence pending investigation, Panelo said he will leave it to the PAO chief to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh nasa ano \u2018yun eh, na kay<\/em>\u00a0Chief Acosta\u00a0na iyon<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s for Chief Acosta to decide),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

In a statement submitted before the Ombudsman, the PAO lawyers accused Acosta of \u201cfraud, falsification, and malfeasance in public procurement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the alleged illegal purchases made by Acosta were office supplies used for the Dengvaxia cases.<\/p>\n

PAO lawyer Wilfredo Garrido Jr. earlier filed a graft complaint against Acosta.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the pendency of the instant complaint filed by complainant Garrido, respondents Acosta and Erfe, through their cohorts in Financial Planning and Management Service, have a systematic scheme in covering traces of their capricious, illegal, and corrupt practices especially relating to the disbursements and allocation of the PAO budget,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n

Acosta, however, denied the lawyers\u2019 accusations.\u00a0(<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Public Attorney\u2019s Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta still has the trust and confidence of President Rodrigo Duterte amid corruption …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":215180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227010,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227005\/revisions\/227010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}