Authority and official role
- Section 1 authorizes Judges of First Instance to designate one practicing lawyer in each province within their respective districts.
- The designated lawyer is called “defensor de oficio.”
- Section 1 makes the defensor de oficio responsible for representing the defendant free of charge in all criminal cases in the Court of First Instance of the province.
- Section 1 limits free defense to defendants who are unable to employ counsel.
Designation, acceptance, and license tax exemption
- Section 2 requires that once the designation is made and accepted, the court shall notify the provincial treasurer.
- Section 2 exempts the defensor de oficio from the payment of the license tax established by subsection eight of section one hundred and forty-four of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine.
- Section 2 states the exemption applies during the entire time the lawyer holds the office.
Oath requirement and prohibition on compensation
- Section 3 requires the defensor de oficio, before performing duties, to make a statement under oath to the judge.
- Section 3 requires the oath to include, among other things, a promise not to collect any money or receive any object from defendants as compensation.
- Section 3 allows an exception only when the court grants special authority for good reason.
When counsel may receive an equitable fee
- Section 4 provides that if, after the defense is entrusted to the defensor de oficio, it is proved that the defendant has the means to pay for a lawyer of their own, the court shall act.
- Section 4 directs the court to designate an equitable fee to be paid to the defensor de oficio.
- Section 4 provides that no appeal lies from the judge’s order fixing the fee.
Private practice and limits
- Section 5 allows the defensor de oficio to engage in private practice.
- Section 5 conditions private practice on it not being incompatible with or detrimental to the defensor de oficio’s official duties.
Relationship to earlier military-court rules
- Section 6 states that Act No. 1942 shall not repeal section seventeen of General Orders, Numbered Fifty-eight issued by the Military Government of the Philippine Islands on April twenty-third, nineteen hundred, as amended by section one of Act Numbered Four hundred and forty.
- The preserved rule concerns criminal procedure, including authority to allow the court under certain conditions to assign counsel who are not members of the bar to aid respondents in their defense.