‘Mafnas carried 2 service guns’

Ramon C. Mafnas obtained two government-issued service guns as Department of Public Safety commissioner and Department of Corrections secretary, although he was not certified for both firearms, Police Capt. Pete Leon Guerrero said yesterday.

As this developed, Bureau of Motor Vehicle director Juana C. Leon Guerrero and six other BMV staff filed a grievance complaint before the Office of Personnel Management against Mafnas for alleged harassment, intimidation, and creating a hostile working environment.

Saipan Tribune tried but failed to obtain comments from Mafnas.

Capt. Leon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune that DPS regulations require the commissioner, a police officer, or a corrections officer to complete a mandatory 40 hours of training for marksmanship instruction and certification before being allowed to carry a gun.

“He never attended the training!” said Capt. Leon Guerrero, who spearheaded the petition seeking Mafnas’ ouster from DPS.

Instead, Mafnas ordered range instructor David Hosono to issue him a .9mm pistol in his capacity as DPS commissioner, said Capt. Leon Guerrero.

Mafnas also obtained a .9mm pistol as DOC secretary.

Capt. Leon Guerrero said that Hosono couldn’t do anything about it since Mafnas is the DPS chief and Corrections secretary.

“ [Mafnas] thinks that as the commissioner he’s god,” Leon Guerrero said.

As of 1pm yesterday, Mafnas already turned in to Hosono the service firearm issued him as DPS commissioner, Capt. Leon Guerrero said, adding that Mafnas had already surrendered the other gun issued him as Corrections secretary.

He said that Mafnas should surrender the guns to DPS.

In the grievance complaint dated March 26, 2012, submitted to OPM director Isidro K. Seman, BMV director Leon Guerrero and six other employees claim that Mafnas created a hostile working environment at the bureau.

“We just cannot continue to be target of a weekly ritual of fear, of being ridiculed for making mistakes, fear of going to work, fear of intimidation, unwarranted abusive and foul language, public ridicule and humiliation, and the bully attitude thrown at us by Commissioner Ramon C. Mafnas,” complainants said.

The BMV employees asked OPM to immediately initiate an investigation and hearing on their complaint.

A copy of the complaint was submitted to the CNMI Civil Service Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The complainants alleged that they were not the only targets of Mafnas’ abusive behavior as he would also shout at and harass BMV customers.

“We find that he is quick to harass customers who are not locals and for no reason at all,” the BMV employees said.

The BMV staff recalled that in December 2011, Mafnas would visit the bureau at least twice a week to check on the status of the driver license system as he has been apparently receiving complaints of delays in the issuance of driver’s license.

Mafnas would allegedly shout at BMV employees in front of customers as to why the system is down.

“He expects us to do miracles with the system which we were never trained to repair or service,” the employees said.

Mafnas allegedly refused to hear the employees’ recommendation and thought that the employees were intentionally breaking the system.

The new driver’s license system kept experiencing failure such as inputting driver license information and printing the new cards. The BMV staff said they worked with the department’s information technician, who had been delegated to oversee the maintenance of the system. Failing to resolve the malfunctions, the information technician eventually referred BMV to Saipan Computer Systems to fix the system.

Director Leon Guerrero said that Mafnas did not offer any assistance or solution to fix the malfunction and instead continued to humiliate her and her staff in front of every customer.

“We have tried to tolerate his crude and bully behavior but his weekly visitation for the sole purpose of harassing us is beyond what any person or government employee can tolerate,” the BMV employees said.

On Monday morning, an Attorney General’s investigator visited director Leon Guerrero at BMV and inquired about what is going on with DPS and the commissioner. The director related to the investigator what they had been experiencing with Mafnas.

Within 20 minutes after the investigator left her office, director Leon Guerrero said that Mafnas’ secretary called and asked her and driver’s license technician Guadalupe Repeki to meet with him.

Leon Guerrero said she refused to do so for fear of harassment.

The complainants said the commissioner’s treatment of them and customers is uncalled for and not the actions of a competent and level-headed manager.

“His treatment has to stop, not only to the staff of BMV [and] myself but to the other silent victims who are afraid to report Commissioner Mafnas’ intimidation and harassment. It is so sad that we tried to tolerate such a hostile working environment,” the BMV employees said.

Saipan Tribune broke the story on Friday about complaints that Mafnas allegedly harassed two Filipino security guards and a Korean dive instructor in separate incidents last year in Marpi.