Former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon may now assume his post as director general of the Bureau of Corrections, an attached agency of the Department of Justice.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte had finally signed Faeldon’s appointment papers to replace Ronald dela Rosa, who resigned last month to run for senator in next year’s elections.
“Nicanor Faeldon’s appointment papers as director general of the BuCor have been signed by the President and ready for release by the executive secretary,” Guevarra said in a text message to reporters.
He said Faeldon’s appointment coincided with the 113th anniversary of the bureau, which is tasked to manage the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City and other penal colonies in the provinces.
Duterte announced Faeldon’s appointment to the bureau last month, but the former Marine captain was not able to assume his post because he had no appointment papers.
Guevarra said his office had earlier requested the Civil Service Commission to evaluate and endorse Faeldon to the Office of the President as part of the requirements for his appointment.
He said Assistant Secretary Melvin Ramon Buenafe, who is the Bureau of Corrections’ deputy director general for security and operations, was temporarily tapped as officer-in-charge of the bureau.
Dela Rosa was the bureau’s chief post for six months.
Faeldon was the former chief of Customs but he had since stepped down from the post over the P6.4-billion shabu shipment case that hounded Customs last year.
Faeldon tendered his resignation thrice before Duterte accepted it.
Duterte then reappointed Faeldon as deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense in December last year, or four months after he quit as Customs chief.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency filed a complaint against Faeldon and several other Customs officials over the multi-billion-peso shabu case, but the Justice department dismissed the charges against Faeldon.
State prosecutors said the complainants failed “to state with clarity the acts or omission supposedly committed by the respondents that would constitute violation of the offense charged.”
Faeldon may have avoided criminal prosecution but he is still facing investigation at the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman’s fact-finding panel recommended cases against the former Customs chief and other officials of the agency.
