Troy Talks: Episode 5 • Support Kingman, attack corruption, call out wasteful spending

I am disappointed in the CNMI’s senate president. Edith Deleon Guerrero was a bright, shining star in the movement against the corruption of Ralph Torres and his regime. She was among the first to call out his corruption after he fired her as his secretary of labor. She was a pioneer in the political movement to replace the corrupt republicans who long held the reins of government.

Now, for whatever reason, she is the person stepping on the brakes toward any reasonable movement to bring Mr. Torres and the republican gang to justice.

Marissa Flores, in a story today by Emmanuel Erediano in the Marianas Variety, is calling on the senate to pass her bill that would give the CNMI attorney general subpoena powers. It is a power most state attorneys general have.

Mr. Erediano wrote:

“Our job here is to dig and find out what are the systemic problems. An elected AG has no subpoena power? I think that is a disgrace and embarrassing. We sit here talking about public corruption and yet for the longest time we never knew that the AG has no subpoena power,” Flores said. She said the Senate should “take out” H.B. 23-22 from the committee and put it on the floor.

H.B. 23-22 is the House bill she authored to grant the AG subpoena powers. It was passed by the House months ago and was supposed to be on the Senate’s September agenda before Ms. Deleon Guerrero pulled it.

The Senate president said she shared a concern by the Office of the Public Defender that giving the AG subpoena and arrest powers creates another law enforcement agency. In the rest of America, the attorney general’s office isn’t just another law enforcement agency, it is the CHIEF law enforcement agency of the state.

What’s the problem here?

Here is more of what Mr. Erediano wrote in his story:

Most recently, Deleon Guerrero said, “another elected official private-messaged me wanting to introduce Kingman. And my question was, ‘Are you Kingman’s lobbyist?’ ” She did not name the elected official.

After all Ms. Deleon Guerrero has been through and after everything she sold the voters on regarding her integrity and her stance against corruption, why wouldn’t the senate president want to meet the corruption prosecutor? Why wouldn’t she want to shake his hand and tell him, ‘Thank you for your service and sacrifice for our Commonwealth, chelu?’

Why wouldn’t this so-called pioneer against the Torres corruption regime want to tell prosecutor James Kingman her story; the crimes Mr. Torres wanted her to commit as secretary of labor? Why wouldn’t she want to assist him through the thousands of pages of evidence she sifted through prior to casting her vote to remove Ralph Torres from office based on the articles of impeachment in 2022?

It makes zero sense to even think Jim Kingman can afford a lobbyist, much less a fancy meal, with the pittance of a salary he makes in Saipan compared to what he was earning in the states. And why would he even need a lobbyist?

Kingman isn’t the corrupt one here. It’s the guy he’s prosecuting. Why would a public official – the senate president, no less – obstruct the prosecution of a corrupt official?

There is something fishy going on here.

Ms. Deleon Guerrero is the author of legislation that would give local legislative delegations subpoena power. Why would the senate president support subpoena powers for a local legislative delegation and not for the state attorney general? What kind of backward nonsense is that?

And don’t get me wrong; the more analysis and criticism of the government, the better. It’s should come as no surprise that Ms. Deleon Guerrero wants to use these subpoena powers as head of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation judiciary committee to attract popularity the way Celina Babauta did. She very likely wants to hold hearings – just as Babauta did – and subpoena documents and witnesses – just as Babauta did.

But unlike Babauta, Deleon Guerrero’s focus won’t be on the misdeeds of the Torres administration. She clearly has targeted the current administration with her inquiries. And that’s a good thing. Legislators need to ask the governor and his cabinet the tough questions. Ms. Deleon Guerrero absolutely should question spending by the current administration. She should slam poor decisions. She should have the authority to subpoena documents and witnesses.

And if she, a legislator, should have that authority, it’s a no brainer that the attorney general – the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth – should have that power as well.

For her to state otherwise will be her passive admission that she’s sold her soul into the cauldron of the corrupt.