Ángela Martínez and Martina Bautista are inspired by community service from the field of their profession: law. Both consider important the opportune access to justice and the guarantee of the due judicial process for each citizen.
“That no one is left defenseless and that everyone has a fair trial, whether guilty or innocent, that is irrelevant,” Bautista emphasized during a ceremony to inaugurate 18 of 23 new public defenders at the Court of Justice of Guayas, in the center of Guayaquil.
She, like Martinez, were among the 18 new public defenders who were sworn in during their inauguration ceremony last Thursday.
Although she has twelve years of experience in the institution in that position as a defender, Bautista considered receiving the appointment as a blessing and honor for continuing to provide legal assistance services to those who cannot afford a lawyer or have other limitations in their defense.
She, as well as Martínez, said that she was favored by the bank of eligible that was integrated after a contest of merits and opposition in 2015, which had the participation of around 4,500 lawyers. Of that number, there was a group that has been positioning itself over the years, she said.
Martínez has also spent fourteen years in different judicial units, protecting the defense of citizens. In 2007 she was a public defender and until now in the same institution she has held other positions, such as provincial director in Guayas and Galapagos, deputy director of Social Sponsorship and legal assistant.
“All my life I have liked to serve my neighbor, my country, my people, and why not do it from this point of view? I always ask God for wisdom; and above all that, with these clean hands, as I have worked in my life, being in the free exercise and in public functions, I have never been involved in acts of corruption, ”says she, who had a brief stint as an advisor in the Assembly.
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She says that since February 7, when she began her work in Balzar, a canton in the province of Guayas, she has received 700 folders from the social area, such as requests from mothers who have child support requests, acknowledgments of children by their parents or those who seek to hand over parental authority to the mother of their children; and, likewise, another 30 criminal requests. “That oath we just made in there is before God, not before man. The oath is to respect and enforce principles and values,” she said.
Currently, the Public Defender’s Office has approximately 725 defenders (around 200 in Guayas) at the service of citizens, although it still has a deficit of 200 at the national level, as Ángel Torres Machuca, general public defender of the State, acknowledged at the end of the incorporation of the new group.
The general public defender of the State considered the recent incorporation of 23 defenders as a measure to strengthen the work of the institution, after completing the procedures implemented for the allocation of resources for 28 items, of which 23 were designated by resolution of the Council of the Judiciary. Of that number, a total of 18 were sworn in at the ceremony held last Thursday and another five will join next March. The new servers, for the most part, will be assigned to Guayas.
This group, according to Torres, seeks to strengthen the criminal, flagrancy and multi-competent areas to provide a better free service and quality in the technical defense offered to citizens, regularly for people with economic difficulties, Machuca said.
As part of the measures to strengthen the entity, Torres highlighted that last year an increase in the rate of public defenders was included in the 2021-2025 national development plan: from 3.87 to 5 per 100,000 inhabitants.
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“This will allow the institution to have the resources, the budgetary allocation by the Ministry of Finance and, in turn, the Judicial Council can call a contest for public defenders at the national level, because we have a deficit of 200 servers. public at the national level…”, he indicated.
According to data from the entity, a year a public defender handles an average of 350 processes. “We need to be able to increase more personnel to cover this deficit that we have,” he commented, adding that it is expected to reach enough personnel for up to five years to come.
Juan José Morillo, member of the Council of the Judiciary, noted that in coordination with the Public Defender’s Office they have been able to provide 83 public defenders between replacements and new appointments from 2019 to 2022.
Jonathan Vanegas, provincial director of the Public Defender’s Office, also considered the incorporation of new defenders to be important due to the exponential increase in requests, which currently fluctuate between at least 12,000 and 15,000 between consultancies and sponsorships, in order to be able to facilitate access to justice for citizens, as stated in the Constitution with other fundamental rights.
This incorporation tries to decongest and give greater attention to citizens in the 26 points in 15 cantons of the province of Guayas.
At the appointment, Fausto Murillo, current president of the Judicial Council, took the oath of the new group of defenders and stated that they are ready to collect the needs and concerns and support solution projects in the judicial field in Guayas. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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