What happened to the investigations into Ralph Torres and his administration for what evidence points to as the most corrupt regime in the CNMI? And where are all the elected leaders, who campaigned on the promise to hold Mr. Torres and his cronies accountable for their misdeeds?
Was all the stolen and misspent money suddenly returned to the people’s treasury?
Or was it just plain politics and rhetoric meant to fool voters into believing change truly was within their political will and commitment?
Last year – after the election – then-Rep. Celina Roberto Babauta and then-Rep. Donald Manglona held investigative hearings into the infamous BOOST scandal. Document upon document, testimony after testimony, a factual picture emerged of the most audacious cronyism, where get-rich-quick schemes met and conspired with a blatant attempt to bribe Ralph Torres into gubernatorial re-election, all at the expense of public funds. The hearings ended, not because the work was done, but because the clock had run out on the Twenty-second Commonwealth Legislature.
Ms. Babauta and Mr. Manglona now are members of the Senate, where they are playing their roles to vet new cabinet officers as qualified and honest public servants, and to fix the fiscal crisis Mr. Torres left behind.
In their stead in the House are new Rep. Marissa Flores, who now chairs Ms. Babauta’s old committee; and Rep. Ralph Yumul, who took over Mr. Manglona’s ways and means committee.
Ms. Flores has since announced she will not continue the BOOST hearings despite the unfinished business and, more importantly, the fact that no one – not a single crony not to mention Torres himself – has been held accountable. Not a single dime of stolen and ill-gotten wealth has been returned to the people of the Commonwealth!
Where is Ms. Flores’s commitment to the Commonwealth?
And this is not to mention the fact that BOOST – a $17 million corrupt scandal and heist – accounts for only a minor fraction of the nearly billion dollars in federal pandemic (non-unemployment aid) funding Ralph Torres squandered to the tune of a more than $80 million over-obligation.
If Ms. Flores is committed to fiscal responsibility and accountability, and to the overall fight against corruption, doesn’t she believe she has a job to do to find out how a friend of the Torreses got an $8 million non-competitive gift to start an airline? Or who benefitted from the single-casino license and years of non-payment of fees and taxes, and alleged violations of labor, financial, and other regulatory misdeeds? Hundreds of millions of dollars in sole source contracts that went to cronies? Commingling of funds? Violations of federal grantor covenants? Lies about payments of hospital debt? A financial system in such disarray, the CNMI government general fund has not been audited in two fiscal years? Illegal overtime? Illegal pay raises? Illegal first class travel? Cheetos! CHEETOS purchased by the taxpayers along with all sorts of personal items and luxuries?
There may literally be thousands of unanswered questions, and Ms. Flores doesn’t want to ask a single one. Why?
We might never know, as she has repeatedly ignored questions about her inaction and decisions to not hold hearings.
Publicly, she has stated she has proclaimed in platitudes that ‘it’s time to move forward.’ With what? The debt? The 36-hour workweek? The poverty? Are we just going to forget the corruption happened, and call it a day? Is that the lesson for the up and coming generations of young Northern Mariana Islanders? That you can swindle people and embolden cronyism, steal from the poor and face no consequences whatsoever? Why have criminal laws, if that’s the case? Why prosecute anyone for petty theft, if we can’t hold a former governor and his cronies accountable for billions in questioned costs occurring over his seven-year regime? The federal raids, which were warranted upon evidence of crimes including wire fraud, money laundering, and foreign interference in elections.
Why have a House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee, if it’s not going to do a damn thing?
Yes, there is pressing business. Yes, the economy needs to be developed. Yes, schools need funding, and government workers need to be restored to full work hours. But, don’t these House members think many of those problems can be solved if the government can just get IPI to pay its reportedly owed taxes and fees, and recover funds illegally and unethically taken from the treasury by Torres cronies?
The business of the Commonwealth must go on, absolutely. But that business includes getting back that stolen money, and putting the thieves in jail, just like any other thief.
The silver lining here is that Ms. Flores is only one of 20 members of the House, and it seems her colleagues in the leadership disagree with her and are heeding Gov. Palacios’s call for accountability against corruption.
Rep. Ed Propst has confirmed the House leadership has met and decided to empanel a corruption investigation into the Torres administration. It will be chaired by Rep. Ralph Yumul, with Mr. Propst as the deputy.
“We will be revisiting the BOOST hearings,” Mr. Propst told Kandit. “We will be conducing hearings and bringing in those witnesses who weren’t called in last year due to the expiration of the legislative term. We are committed to this.”
An announcement with details is expected later this week from House leadership.
But not from Ms. Flores, who chairs the one committee with the duty to investigate government impropriety and violations of the public trust.
Elected leaders, do not go soft on corruption now that you’ve won the election and are in charge. You’re in charge, because of the public trust. Which means, the public has entrusted you to take charge of holding derelict public officials and conspirators in corruption FULLY accountable for their malfeasance and crimes. Don’t violate that trust. Go after the corrupt, full throttle.
3 Comments
Saipan Patriot
05/02/2023 at 11:21 PM
Your now blaming Rep Flores. You yourself should look into the mirror! All you do is sling mud at the very people trying to help-what changes do you bring to the CNMI? All you do is support crooks and bandits like Hunter hunt, Janice Tenorio, Frank Matsunaga stealing from CUC and supporting CHCC against rate payers!! All these brave men in office and you pick on the new feisty Rep Flores.
She has pasted more bills than any other Legislator-get your head straight and help!
Noel Reyes
05/03/2023 at 7:00 AM
Why did the Spaniards call the Marianas the “Islas de las Ladrones”? As for those elected into public office, some perhaps do not have the ability to comprehend their duties and responsibilities as public servants. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same. By the way, the feds NEED to conclude their investigations, they need to be impartial and they need to perform their duties and be reminded of their responsibilities as dictated by their employment contracts. So many in our communities have lost faith in this system of “democracy – a government of the people, by the people and for the people”. What a farce. Truly embarrassing..
Russ Mason
05/03/2023 at 10:17 AM
On YouTube there’s an old video, posted by Bloomberg, about the questionable relationship between IPI, Gov. Torres, and his brothers. It also mentioned the FBI raids on all of the above. So there’s a Lot of dirt, safely under the carpet.
WHY?
Last Saturday, a 14 year-old boy was tragically swept out to sea, and was (presumably) lost to the waves. Our local media might have issued an emergency bulletin late Saturday night, with updates on Sunday, but there was nothing.
Surely a boy’s precarious life merited a quick response, but all of our local media failed, as it routinely does on weekends. I feel frustrated and deeply ashamed, and I grieve for the Delos Santos’ brother, father, and family. You deserved better.