Tulfo to raise pao budget, ceiling on availment of services

MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial race frontrunner Raffy Tulfo said he is preparing a bill to amend the charter of the Public Attorney’s Office, Republic Act 9406, “so more Filipinos can avail themselves of PAO services and so PAO can have more lawyers and more logistics. This will be among the first batch of bills I will file.”

“First, I will raise the income ceiling higher by expanding or replacing the PAO indigency test with a more inclusive coverage that include low income and middle income earners, because availing of the services of a private lawyer is more than enough to plunge an entire middle income family into poverty,” Tulfo said.

He also said PAO needs more lawyers and more logistics. He intends to increase the PAO budget so it can have more lawyers and modernize its services with computers, databases, mobile apps and e-services.

“The indigency test to avail of free PAO legal services is a safety net with large holes. Not only is the P14,000 per month income ceiling for the PAO indigency test outdated and obsolete, it does not save millions of low income and middle income families who cannot afford the service of private lawyers,” he added. “In my experience, average income earning security guards who have P15,000 per month salary resort to selling or pawning their motorcycles and basic household appliances or, if they have none, resort to loan sharks colloquially known as ‘5/6’, who give unfair interest rates just to pay for acceptance fees and other legal costs.

“Even above average earning employees such as BPO workers whose average salary is P25,000 would be hard up to provide sufficient funds for acceptance fees as it represents two months of their salary. Adding to the burden, lawyer’s appearance fees of P5,000 represents a substantial portion of their monthly income that could have gone to basic needs.”

Tulfo said he is considering P25,000 per month as the new monthly income ceiling or possibly the P250,000 annual income tax exemption threshold used by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, because “indigency is too low of a ceiling for existential or life-and-death legal matters.”

“Looking at the industry average for lawyers, P50,000 is the going acceptance fee and P5,000 is the fee for every court appearance. That’s the cheapest for a private lawyer. Others charge P100,000 acceptance fee and P10,000 per court appearance,” Tulfo said, citing his many years of helping give free legal assistance to people who come to him for help.

Citing further his office’s legal aid services, “I can’t count how many I’ve bailed out (since) based on the pieces of evidence presented to me by the relatives, the suspect is innocent and had no legal representative during their inquest. Later on the case was dismissed,” Tulfo said.

“That’s why I always repeat the line of Ramon Magsaysay that ‘he who has less in life should have more in law’. When I get to the Senate, I will level the playing field for the poor to get equal and fair justice the same as the rich. After all, it is the right of every Filipino to have legal representation as part of due process in the Constitution.”