Rescuing our public prosecutors

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Rescuing our public prosecutors
Sunday, 03 16, 2003

The establishment of the National Prosecution Service (NPS) in the Department of Justice (DoJ) under Presidential Decree 1275 addresses the indispensable role of the government in upholding the rule of law by way of initiating and maintaining criminal proceedings against persons accused of committing crimes.

We have today in the NPS a stable of lawyers serving as public prosecutors, dedicated to dispensing justice as pillars in our criminal justice system. Many young lawyers view the NPS as an excellent place to begin a career: A stint in the NPS is an excellent preparation for other kinds of law practice. It provides young lawyers with valuable contacts in the legal profession.

For many years now, the salaries of our prosecutors have not been competitive with those of lawyers in private practice, and for this reason it has become increasingly difficult to attract the best and the brightest. Many of those who become prosecutors do not stay long enough because they are eventually lured into higher paying jobs in other government offices, specially, or because they view the job at the NPS only as a training ground before going into private practice.

This is aggravated by the imbalance between the low number of prosecutors with the number of regional and other trial courts in the country, resulting in heavy workload. While prosecutors are overloaded and overworked in performing their vital roles in the justice system, they receive compensation lesser than those in the Judiciary. This situation has produced a migratory effect: After spending a few years in the NPS, prosecutors resign and join the ranks of the Judiciary.

Couple all these with the constant threat on our prosecutors of being cited for criminal indictment by sourgraping private litigants, and you have an office whose prosecutors would rather leave the service than be martyrs for a measly compensation. The sad fate of prosecutors who are victims of harassment by shysters in a case in point. These prosecutors resolve cases clearly on the merits, but the losing private litigants and their counsel hale them nonetheless to the Office of the Ombudsman for no reason other than the litigants’ losing the cases they faced.

In short, prosecutors are overworked, underpaid and constantly under stress. In due time, we could have an office decimated by the resignation of highly-trained but burnt-out prosecutors.

City Prosecutor Ferrer Co, president of the National Prosecutors’ League, earlier decried the special treatment given to the police and military officers, and judges, the other pillars of the criminal justice system, who have been granted by law salary increases, and the seeming inaction to address the measly salaries and compensation of our prosecutors. He said this has caused demoralization among the prosecutors.

To stem the exodus, specially with the impending increase in the salaries of judges which is also his initiative, Sen. Ed Angara filed last Wednesday, with the endorsement of Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong, a bill seeking to increase the salaries and the grant of additional incentives and privileges to prosecutors. A companion bill that Angara will be filing before Congress adjourns this week is the bill extending the coverage of the Judiciary Retirement Act (Republic Act 910) to members of the NPS.

Angara’s bill increases by 100 percent the basic monthly rates of our prosecutors in accordance with the salary grades of government employees under Republic Act 6758, or the Salary Standardization Law, Under Angara’s proposed measure, salary grade 18 for positions of associate prosecution attorney 1 shall have an entry level rate of P31,682 per month (as against the current rate P15,841) and a step 8 rate of P37,660 (the current rate is P18,830). Salary grade 30 for the position of chief state prosecutor shall have an entry level of P57,750 per month (the current rate is P28,375) and a step 8 rate of P68,646 (the current rate is P34,323).

The proposed measure also authorizes the Justice secretary to prepare and adopt an incentive scheme for officers and employees of the DoJ and use the income of the department to augment the resulting increases in compensation and incentives. The DoJ is authorized to charge fees for the various services being rendered by the NPS and the corresponding authority to disburse the funds to augment the compensation of prosecutors. This will institutionalize the special provision in the annual General Appropriations Act (beginning fiscal year 2003) which Angara fought hard to include, realizing the problem of low compensation for our prosecutors. Should the bill become law, the Justice secretary will no longer have the problem of lobbying in Congress for the retention of that special provision.

Datumanong has expressed elation over Angara’s twin bills, unmindful of the distortion that will ensue, meaning he and his undersecretaries in the DoJ will be receiving basic salaries considerably less than the prosecutors. He welcomes the increases for the prosecutors, considering their being the workhorses in the frontlines.

A strong criminal justice system needs an independent, responsive and efficient NPS. The bills of Angara will benefit the entire justice system, for there would be a continuous supply of competent and dedicated lawyers from the DoJ, lured no more by the enticements of private practice, or the Judiciary, or other government offices.



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