Dela Cruz pushes for vote on elected AG initiative

Rep. Frank Dela Cruz (R-Saipan) asked House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) to pull out from a committee his legislative initiative authorizing the election of an attorney general so it can be voted on in the next session.

But Cabrera said he will be conferring with leadership members on what to do with Dela Cruz’s House Legislative Initiative 17-2.

“The initiative has been there for quite long. It is high time we pull it out of the committee so we can dispose of it once and for all… The issues confronting the AG make it more important to have this initiative acted on,” Dela Cruz told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Dela Cruz was referring to the CNMI Bar Association’s investigation of attorney general Edward Buckingham over alleged violation of ethics rules in connection with his approval of a sole-source ARRA management contract worth close to $400,000. Buckingham said he has never violated any ethics rules or laws.

Buckingham has also been criticized for hosting a delegate candidate event in 2010, but the Office of the Public Auditor has not publicly released the results of such an investigation. But Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said he did not agree with OPA’s findings of violations, but did not want to release the OPA report either.

Dela Cruz also brought up the issue of acting on his initiative before the House adjourned its session on Thursday.

HLI 17-2 was already headed for the Commonwealth Election Commission to be placed on the ballot after it passed the Senate in March this year.

However, the House recalled the initiative to clarify discrepancies in the proposed salary.

Dela Cruz’s original initiative proposed a $150,000 annual salary for the elected AG, but what was transmitted to the Senate only reflected a salary of $80,000 which Dela Cruz said won’t be attractive to prospective candidates.

When the initiative went back to the House, the speaker referred it back to the Judiciary and Government Operations Committee.

Dela Cruz introduced the initiative on Jan. 28, 2011. He said the measure has already undergone much review and discussion that there’s no need to prolong the process.

The initiative seeks to amend Article III, Section 11 of the CNMI Constitution to authorize the election of an attorney general. Once it clears the Legislature, voters could decide on whether or not to elect an AG in the next midterm elections in 2012.

Under Dela Cruz’s HLI 17-2, the elected AG would have a term of four years and cannot serve for more than two terms.

Similar initiatives were introduced in previous legislatures but they were either passed by one house and rejected by the other one, or did not even come out of a committee. This time around, the measure passed both houses but discrepancies in the proposed salary caused a delay in the process.