PAO seeks P700 million to hire more lawyers, staff
Text size
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) is seeking an additional P700 million to hire more lawyers and support staff as each public attorney handles an average of 350 cases a month.
PAO Chief Persida Rueda-Acosta told lawmakers during House budget deliberations that the agency needs 559 additional lawyers but is willing to settle for roughly half, or about 225 new lawyers, along with 400 support staff.
“We still have a wish list. We are also asking for 559 additional lawyers,” Rueda-Acosta said.
She said additional personnel are needed because PAO lawyers handle duties beyond court cases, including mediation and arbitration, preliminary investigations, inquest proceedings, village outreach, legal counseling and assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
PAO also handles labor and other legal cases, while providing mediation services to prevent conflicts when both parties are represented by the agency, she said.
The agency conducts legal outreach through the Department of Justice’s Katarungan Caravan and provides legal counseling through text messaging and social media platforms.
“We are also serving the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration because we are called upon by these two agencies to assist our OFWs abroad personally through our PAO lawyers,” she said.
PAO’s proposed 2027 budget is P7.101 billion, 6.10 percent higher than its P6.693-billion allocation for 2026.
Rueda-Acosta clarified that the increase is largely due to mandatory salary adjustments and funding for previously created positions, including 87 lawyer positions, rather than new positions.
The proposed budget would allow PAO to target an 83.05-percent favorable judgment rate for disposed cases, including appeals, in 2027.
PAO reported a 91.43-percent success rate in alternative dispute resolution cases in 2025 and sustained high disposition rates for cases resulting in favorable judgments in 2025 and 2026.
The agency also pledged to act on all requests for nonjudicial services within two hours in 2027.
During the hearing, FPJ Panday Bayanihan Rep. Brian Poe Llamanzares called for expanded legal aid in communities with limited access to lawyers.
Poe cited the DOJ Action Center, also known as the Katarungan Caravan, which served about 15,000 people in 2026 and was on track to surpass the roughly 25,000 people served the previous year.
He urged PAO to devote additional resources to the caravan and other grassroots legal assistance programs.
“I hope PAO will be able to assign more resources to the Katarungan Caravan and to our outreach services through the DOJ,” Poe said.
Rueda-Acosta said PAO was committed to expanding its outreach and would continue working with the DOJ to bring legal services closer to communities.
She also cited the agency’s assistance to indigenous peoples and residents of remote areas, saying more public attorneys were needed in mountainous and far-flung communities.
Rueda-Acosta likewise proposed expanding legal assistance for overseas Filipinos, saying Philippine embassies could benefit from having access to PAO lawyers to assist migrant workers facing legal problems abroad.
Lawmakers expressed support for increasing PAO’s resources, citing the agency’s key role in providing free legal assistance to Filipinos who cannot afford private counsel.
