Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon has been designated as acting prosecutor general of the National Prosecution Service after his predecessor opted to be relieved of his post.
In Department Order No. 384, Justice Menardo Guevarra appointed Fadullon to the post vacated by Makati City Prosecutor Jorge Catalan Jr., who wants to focus as city prosecutor so as not to compromise and sacrifice performance and productivity by holding on to both offices.
Guevarra earlier granted the request of Catalan to be relieved of his position, effective at the close of office hours on June 29, 2018, so that he may focus on his responsibilities as city prosecutor of the country’s premier city.
“He just asked to be relieved from his concurrent duty as acting prosecutor general so that he may focus on his full-time job as CP [city prosecutor] for Makati,” Guevarra said, in a text message.
Catalan was designated as acting prosecutor general pursuant to the Department Order No. 394 dated June 9, 2017 by then former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.
Guevarra said that Fadullon’s appointment will take effect June 30, 2018 until a new prosecutor general is appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Besides Fadullon, Guevarra said he will be appointing new key appointments in the next few days.
Commenting on his appointment, Fadullon expressed gratitude to Justice Secretary Guevarra for the new post, saying he will also focus on the spate of killings which have targeted prosecutors.
“I thank the Secretary for the designation as Acting PG. I ask for your prayers as I begin to face the task at hand. Moving forward, there are a lot of concerns that we have to look into and address as far as the national prosecution service is concerned,” Fadullon said, in a text message sent to reporters.
“Among them are the spate of killings of prosecutors that have remained unresolved. In the meantime, we will focus all efforts towards professionalizing the NPS and increasing the efficiency of our prosecutors. Hopefully, this will renew the trust of the people in the NPS, the DOJ and the entire justice system,” Fadullon said.