JV Ejercito backs DOJ budget proposal to hire more state prosecutors
September 20, 2022
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Tuesday
expressed his support for the proposed budget of the Department of Justice
(DOJ) for the fiscal year 2023.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee on
Finance on the DOJ’s proposed budget, Ejercito said granting additional funding
for the country’s principal law agency will enable it to hire more prosecution
lawyers.
“This is very important. For prosecution
attorneys, at present, there are about 556 unfilled positions for the national
prosecution service, napakalaki pala,” he said.
The DOJ proposed the deployment of around 150
prosecution attorneys across 319 prosecution offices nationwide “to increase
its efficiency in the rendition of its prosecutorial services and further ramp
up its disposition rate of cases.”
The proposal said the department would need
additional funding amounting to P220 million to cover the salaries and benefits
of these prosecution lawyers.
While there are more than 550 unfilled
positions in the National Prosecution Service, Remulla said the DOJ can only
hire 150 lawyers at present.
“We are looking at our absorptive capacity on
how many we can really hire. If you really look at the figures right now, we
really need 800 law prosecutors. But I think we can only hire at least 150,” he
said.
Ejercito then commended Remulla for building
on the work of his predecessor and initiating crucial reforms, such as
improving coordination between the DOJ and the Philippine National Police (PNP)
and launching the construction of a new mega detention facility to replace the
overcrowded New Bilibid Prison.
“It’s a good opportunity that Sec. Boying is
here instituting genuine reforms also started by Secretary Menandro Guevarra.
We will be able to fill up, hopefully, the lack of prosecutors, the improvement
of coordination with the PNP, (and)
lastly, yung pagtutulungan natin yung plano ni Sec. Boying Remulla to
have a mega detention facility kapalit na ng Bilibid,” he said.
