THE Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) was able to ensure the release of 67,353 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta lauded the public attorneys, as well as support personnel, “for a job well done” but told them never to slow down, saying more indigents, who lack access to justice, needed their honest-to-goodness services.
“Over the years, we notice that more people, especially those from the poor sector, are seeking help from PAO for free legal services. Their number is growing as they believe they can obtain justice with the help of the agency which can defend them in courts,” the chief public attorney said.
Lawyer Rigel Salvador, acting PAO’s Field Operations and Statistics Service head, told The Manila Times that the figures constituted those PDLs who were released from detention from January until the third quarter of 2024.
Salvador said 38,087 of the PDLs had, among others, cases involving acquittal, grant of a motion to quash or demurrer to evidence, plea bargaining, permanent dismissal of the case and probation.
The 16,652 PDLs were released after serving their sentence, Salvador said.
Salvador said 8,016 PDLs were freed due to the provisional dismissal of their cases.
“We also have these 559 PDLs who were discharged from detention through a petition filed by PAO to adjust their penalty based on the provisions of Republic Act 10951,” the official said.
RA 10951 is a law passed in 2017 that adjusted the fines for crimes covered by the Revised Penal Code and also the length of imprisonment for certain crimes where the penalty is based on the amount or the value of property and damage involved, like estafa, robbery and theft.
In keeping with the law (RA 10951), PAO said a total of 5,099 PDLs were assisted by the public attorneys, including those (559) released by virtue of the petition.
“There were those whose petitions were already filed, awaiting records from the courts, and had their penalty reduced through a petition, among others,” Salvador said.
“This number represents all the PDL clients of the PAO, regardless of the nature of the case/crime,” he said.
Rueda-Acosta said her agency has also been in constant partnership with the Department of Justice, along with its other attached agencies — the Bureau of Corrections, Board of Pardon and Parole, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology — for the release of PDLs from different prison and penal facilities nationwide.
She said the PDLs were freed under different modes such as acquittal, parole, conditional pardon, cash bond, bail, bond, expiration of maximum sentence and expiration of maximum sentence with Good Conduct Time Allowance and many more.
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