Wednesday, March 05, 2008 Gubalane: new regional state prosecutor
FERNANDO Gubalane, if reports are to be believed, is the new regional state prosecutor (RSP) for Central Visayas.
Gubalane was in Manila yesterday to confirm his appointment but, confirmation notwithstanding, his colleagues at the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor were already in a congratulatory mood.
In separate interviews, prosecutors said he was the man for the job.
President Arroyo signed his appointment in February yet, according to reports related by Acting Regional State Prosecutor Llena Ipong-Avila.
“I guess he didn’t make a followup,” Avila said.
Gubalane, whose more recent actions in office included the recommendation to file in court the libel complaint Gov. Gwen Garcia filed against broadcaster Leo Lastimosa, will take over from Avila who, together with Assistant Talisay City Prosecutor William Canta and former prosecutor Perla Centino, also applied for the post.
Going back to old position
Avila will revert back to her old position—state prosecutor 2—and handle case reviews and some special projects. She is the assigned government prosecutor in the Marlene Esperat murder case.
“Too bad I didn’t get it. I like working with the people here. The staff is very effective and the state prosecutors are very dependable. But I also feel relieved because the work is stressful. Because it is administrative in nature, you have to deal with attitudes,” she said.
Nevertheless, she said she is happy that the job eventually went to Gubalane, “an insider.”
“He has been around for several years, first as a public attorney and then as a government prosecutor. He is a family man with family-oriented values. We’ll just have to support him in every way that we can,” she said.
Avila was acting RSP for over seven months.
The Department Order detailing her was dated August 2007 but she had been discharging the function since June, or immediately after Atty. Antonio Arellano was transferred to Davao as the RSP there.
Not qualified
Sources said Llena’s application didn’t get considered because she did not yet have the 10-year experience as a lawyer that the position requires. She only finished law in 1999, an alumna of the Leyte Colleges in Tacloban City.
Gubalane, on the other hand, has been with the Department of Justice since 1995, having been appointed to the Office of the Public Attorney first and then, in 2001, as an assistant prosecutor of Cebu City.
Gubalane obtained his law degree from the University of San Jose-Recoletos but wasn’t a Jaguar the whole term.
He spent his freshman and sophomore years at the Manuel L. Quezon University in Manila from 1986 to 1988 and then moved to Cebu City for his junior and senior years from 1988 to 1991.
He took the bar in 1994.
While working on his law degree, he worked with the Parole and Probation Office. He was taken in as a clerk in 1986, bumped up as bookkeeper in 1987, budget officer in 1988 and a probation officer in 1991.
His pre-law degree was Bachelor of Science in commerce and was obtained from the Immaculate Conception College in Ozamiz City. (KNR)
