FOR the Public Attorney’s Office, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian appears to be the ‘angel sent from heaven’ after his assurance to its chief, Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta, to look for funds in order to finish the construction of its 10-story building which began in 2019.
As a result, the chief public attorney could only say: “On behalf of my co-PAO officials and personnel along with our public attorneys, I am so thankful to Senator Gatchalian for his assurance to help complete the structure located along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City which remains unfinished to this day.”
She laments that the building, which involves at least five phases and had an initial funding of P1-billion but has since increased its allocation to almost P2-billion because of the rising prices in construction materials over the years, is still incomplete and unusable.
During a budget deliberation before the Senate Committee on Finance (Sub-committee A) chaired by Gatchalian, Rueda-Acosta said she let the Department of Public Works and Highways handle the construction budget since it’s the one tasked to build it as she didn’t want to be accused of pocketing people’s hard-earned money.
“Unfortunately, the DPWH couldn’t push through with its construction especially now that the corruption scandal involving flood control projects has become a primary issue.”
Worse, Rueda-Acosta said the supposed budget amounting to P380-million under the 2026 national budget was already slashed and “we heard, it’s because of the flood control project issues.”
The former long-time Valenzuela mayor assured her that the Senate will do something to finish the building which has two basements for parking and a multi-purpose structure and will house the office of PAO-Metro Manila director, Region 4 A and B and the entire central office, among others.
“Let’s see if we can look for other sources to finish that building hopefully next year,” said the senator who lauded her leadership following PAO’s outstanding rating from the Department of Budget and Management for its 100-percent budget utilization rate.
The senator, citing records, said he’s impressed upon knowing that PAO emerged as the only government agency that’s able to fully utilize its budget properly at 100-percent rate.
“This speaks of efficiency and good management,” he said.
Of the P43.65-billion proposed budget of the Department of Justice for 2026, P6.41 billion will be allocated to PAO, higher than the P5.42-billion budget this year.
