CHR seeks PAO's help in extending free legal service to PDLs

CHR seeks PAO’s help in extending free legal service to PDLs

MANILA, Philippines: The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) eyes a tie-up with the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) for free legal assistance to persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).

This surfaced during a visit by CHR Commissioner Faydah Maniri-Dumarpa, along with other commission officers, to PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta this week where the agency sought to ink a memorandum of agreement (MoA) that would help PDLs.

Maniri-Dumarpa said her agency was mandated to investigate civil and political rights violations against marginalized and vulnerable sectors of the society like the PDLs.

It is also committed to deliver prompt, responsive, accessible, and excellent public service for the protection and promotion of human rights in accordance with universal human rights principles and standards, the CHR official said.

“This is one big reason why we paid a visit to PAO and the chief public attorney as we sought to forge a memorandum of agreement to formalize the partnership between the two government agencies that both serve the marginalized sectors and ensure more efficient referral mechanisms,” she said.

Prior to the visit, Maniri-Dumarpa said the CHR wrote a letter to Rueda-Acosta for the possible identification of points of collaboration since one of the mandates of her agency was to monitor the conditions of PDLs.

“Many of them were requesting us if they could be assisted by PAO in their case and we have already endorsed several requests from PDLs to the PAO,” the commissioner said.

The partnership comes after the Philippine Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) and PAO forged a similar agreement.

Interviewed by The Manila Times, Rueda-Acosta on Friday welcomed the CHR’s move to tie-up with them but said that PAO has been extending free legal services to the PDLs like court representation.

“We also determine those who have served their sentence and recommend for their parole and sometimes release for having served the sentence and now we work for the return of the award of the conduct time allowance,” the PAO chief said.