No ordinary public defenders for PAO's 'exceptional' client Napoles

Janet Lim-Napoles, the "exceptional" client of the Public Attorney's Office, will not have regular public defenders at her side when she faces the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday.

 

PAO Chief Persida Rueda Acosta said in an interview on GMA News TV's "News To Go" on Wednesday that she did not want to pull out PAO lawyers with a heavy caseload to assist Napoles, who has been described as the mastermind of the P10-billion Pork Barrel Scam, during a Senate hearing on the controversy.

 

"Hindi ako makapag-padala ng mga may kaso sa court. Pinili ko ay (yung nasa) managerial position na dati pa nagta-trial," Acosta said.

 

She ended up picking lawyers Howard Areza, Marlon Buan and Analisa Soriano to act as Napoles' ex-officio counsel.

 

Buan joined the PAO in August 2002 as a field lawyer assigned in Manila. Ten years later, he was designated as officer-in-charge of PAO Metro Manila and concurrently as district public attorney of the Manila District 1 Office.

Areza, meanwhile, is head of the PAO Executive Support Service, which handles coordination between the units of the PAO.

Soriano is the assistant head of PAO Special and Appealed Services, which handles cases before appelate courts and administrative tribunals.

 

Areza and Soriano were both part of a team of 12 PAO lawyers, led by Acosta, that represented Lauro Vizconde in 2010 in a bid to reverse the Supreme Court's acquittal of Hubert Webb in the killing of the former's wife and two daughters in June 1991.

 

In 2009, Areza was in the team of public attorneys assigned as legal counsel for Manuel Montero, a prosecution witness in the death of Ruby Rose Barrameda, sister of former beauty queen and actress Rochelle Barrameda.

 

Ruby Rose went missing in 2007 and was found inside a cement-filled drum in Navotas City two years later. 

 

PAO didn't want to handle case

 

Acosta admitted she would rather not have public defenders involved in the Senate investigation on the pork barrel scam.

 

She said, though, that she had no choice but to extend legal assistance Napoles.

 

Acosta said she decided to send lawyers to assist Napoles upon orders from the Senate, whose blue ribbon committee resumes hearings on the scam Thursday.

 

"Sana maintindihan ng kababayan natin na hindi namin gusto ang kasong ito, pero tawag po ng tungkulin namin iyan, para matuloy ang pag-imbestiga dahil nai-inip na ang taumbayan," Acosta said.

 

Under the Public Attorney's Office Law, Republic Act 9406,"the PAO may be called upon by proper government authorities to render such service to other persons, subject to existing laws, rules and regulations."

 

The same law says the PAO may extend free legal assistance and counselling to "indigent persons in criminal, civil, labor, administrative, and other quasi-judicial cases." 

 

Acosta admitted that while Napoles is not considered an "indigent," the businesswoman's situation makes her an "exception."

 

On Tuesday, Napoles appealed to Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senator Teofisto Guingona III to have the hearing rescheduled because she has no lawyer to accompany her and protect her rights. Her legal counsel, lawyer Lorna Kapunan, resigned last week.

 

The Senate rejected the request and ordered PAO to assist Napoles during the blue ribbon committee hearing.

 

Napoles is currently facing a plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly engineering a scam to funnel P10 billion in pork barrel funds to bogus non-governmental organizations.

 

She is currently being held in Sta.Rosa, Laguna for a separate serious illegal detention charge. — Mark Merueñas/JDS, GMA News