Beleaguered Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta on Friday said she harbors no grudges against anyone, including the President himself, following a perceived orchestrated move to oust her from her position. In a report over GMA News' “24 Oras", Acosta said she "idolizes" President Benigno Aquino III, with whom she previously had a disagreement for playing a pivotal role in the release of former soldiers convicted and serving life imprisonment for the killing of the President's father, former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. This page requires a higher version browser Acosta said this as she heaved a sigh of relief, following the opinion of the Civil Service Commission that she and her deputies at the Public Attorneys Office (PAO) need not take the career executive service (CES) examination to keep their posts. (See: CSC exec: No need for PAO chief to take CES exam) "Si Sir Noy, mahal na mahal po ang PAO. Si Sir Noy, idolo ko po siya, dahil alam kong malinis ang kanyang puso," Acosta said in the newscast. (The PAO is very close to Sir Noy’s heart. He is my idol, because I know he has a pure heart.) In 2009, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted executive clemency to the 10 remaining convicts in the double murder case of Aquino Jr. and Rolando Galman in August 1983, after 26 years in prison. (See: 10 convicts in Aquino-Galman case pardoned) Previous to the pardon, two other convicts, former Sergeants Felizardo Taran Jr. and Rolando de Guzman, were released after serving their sentences. (See: 2 ex-soldiers convicted in Aquino-Galman murders freed) Members of the Aquino family had assailed the granting of the pardon to the ten convicts, which they described as political vendetta, or Mrs. Arroyo’s attempt to get back at the Aquinos after the late President Corazon Aquino turned into an anti-Arroyo critic from 2005 onwards. On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had issued a legal opinion that top officials of the PAO, including Acosta, may be ineligible for their posts unless they take the CES examination. (See: DOJ opinion: PAO top execs risk losing positions) On Friday, however, Acosta, whose blood pressure reportedly shot up upon learning of the DOJ’s legal opinion, appeared to be in high spirits as she dispelled speculations of bad blood with the President and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. “Love ko pa rin siya [de Lima]. Love ko pa rin si Ma'am. Ma'am ko pa rin siya. Ganoon ako magmahal sa aking pinuno (I still love Sec. de Lima, and she is still my Ma’am. That’s the way I hold my superior in high esteem)," Acosta said. For her part, de Lima said in the newscast that there is nothing personal in the recent controversy on Acosta’s eligibility.
It just so happened that the Chief Public Attorney’s position is among those determined by the DOJ as requiring CES eligibility. “Yung opinion namin, hindi namin sinasabi na gusto naming mapalitan siya [In our opinion, we’re not saying that we want her replaced]. That’s not the issue at all. The issue there is eligibility. So it’s purely a legal issue," de Lima. Acosta, a recipient of the Lingkod Bayan Award, the highest Presidential award for outstanding public service, is the youngest yet to hold the position of the Chief Public Attorney, according to the Ateneo de Manila Law School website. She finished her law studies at the Ateneo and the University of the East, and took fourth place in the 1989 bar examinations.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV
