PAO budget for forensic unit in jeopardy as creation questioned

During the budget hearing on Monday of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and its attached agencies including the PAO, Drilon said Acosta’s office did not have the proper authority and mandate to create its own forensic unit.

PAO has used this unit to investigate and file cases related to the alleged dengvaxia-related deaths. However, private health experts and the Department of Health DoH) officials had questioned PAO’s findings.

“In my view, your forensic laboratory has no basis in law. It is not authorized by your own charter. It is a mere duplication of the functions of our investigative bodies which have not been shown to be inefficient and incompetent,” Drilon said.

Drilo said the creation of the unit was not only unauthorized but also fraught with danger.

“The problem is, you want to be the NBI by putting up your forensic laboratory. Doctor ka na, pulis ka pa (You’re a doctor and a policeman at the same time),” he told PAO chief Persida Acosta.

Drilon said that Acosta throughout the hearing appeared evasive and was speaking too fast,  prompting Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, to ask his questions directly.

Drilon warned that in cases of conflicting forensic results by government bodies, including “the relatively inexperienced” PAO forensic laboratory, “the administration of justice may be put in jeopardy.”

“I will  propose at the appropriate time to remove the budget for the forensic laboratory from PAO and have it transferred to the NBI where it properly belongs, so it can augment its crime laboratory,” he said.

Acosta defended her move by enumerating a number of laws, including the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) as her basis for creating a separate unit for forensic investigation.

But Drilon said that nothing in the laws that Acosta enumerated authorized the creation of a forensic unit, not even its own charter. BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO