Marcos appoints Erwin Erfe as PAO deputy chief

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed Erwin Erfe, the current director of the Public Attorney's Office Forensics Laboratory Division (PAO-FLD), as the agency's new deputy chief.

«My appointment to a full-time government post is not only a turning point in my career in public service,» Erfe, 58, said on Wednesday. «It is also a confirmation that serving the poor and marginalized for the past 20 years had been a most fulfilling vocation,» he added.

Erfe replaced Silvestre Mosing.

Both a lawyer and medical doctor, Erfe joined the PAO in 2004. He is the co-author of «Death on the Tarmac: Forensic Analysis of the Assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.,» published by The Manila Times Publishing Corp. in 2009.

The forensic analysis contained in the book has resulted in the exoneration, granting of executive clemency and eventual release of the 12 soldiers incarcerated for 26 years for their alleged role in the killing of the former senator.

PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta welcomed Erfe's appointment.

«Evidently, with his competent stewardship of PAO-FLD and compassion for the indigent, marginalized, and helpless clients of PAO, forensic science has become an accessible and effective tool in attaining justice for the poor,» said Rueda-Acosta.