Former vice speaker Quitugua to run as senator

Former House vice speaker Justo S. Quitugua will run once again for senator representing Saipan in the November election, this time as an independent candidate.

Quitugua is so far the third individual to declare his candidacy for a Saipan senatorial seat. The two others are Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Arnold I. Palacios, and former Department of Public Lands secretary and former speaker Oscar M. Babauta, both under the Republican Party. Other names have been floating around, including that of Rep. Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan).

“I’m always for the people. People have been calling me and asking me if I could come back and help, and I am doing that,” Quitugua said in an interview yesterday.

Quitugua was a member of the 14th, 15th, and 16th House of Representatives, representing Precinct 4. He chaired the Committee on Education in the 14th House, and became vice speaker in the 15th House.

He ran as a senator in the 2009 elections under the Democratic Party but did not make it. Since then, he focused on his own consulting firm, which mainly handles federal grants.

He’s a former deputy commissioner for administration at the Public School System from 1990 to 1994, and deputy commissioner for curriculum and instruction from 1983 to 1989.

“If elected as senator, again, I will donate my legislative salaries to the CNMI Scholarship Office for our college students as I did when I was in the House of Representatives,” said Quitugua, a government retiree.

One of his major pieces of legislation that became law was a bill prohibiting smoking in all work places and public places in the CNMI. The bill, co-authored by now Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), became Public Law 16-46 or the “Smoke-free Air Act of 2008.” He also authored a bill that became law allowing people to take a “sick leave” to care for their immediate family members who are sick.

Over 80 of Quitugua’s bills and local bills during his three terms at the House became public laws or local laws. Many of them were bills appropriating funds not only for Precinct 4 projects and programs but also for CNMI-wide activities—from construction and repair of roads and pathways to relocating overflowing sewer system, funding for scholarship, school-related projects, and even the overhaul of Commonwealth Utilities Corp. power plants.

“We need to provide more assistance to our educational system, by way of giving more funding to them,” he added.

Quitugua earned his master’s degree in education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the ‘80s, among only a few CNMI residents at that time to complete a master’s degree. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Guam, and attended Hopwood Junior High School.

Besides his stint at PSS, Quitugua was a language arts and mathematics consultant for the Guam Department of Education and a University of Guam continuing education adjunct instructor.

He said his team will not do a fundraising as “our people are already suffering from high cost of living.” Quitugua’s campaign manager is former representative Rosiky Camacho.

“We started planning for my candidacy long before the Democratic Party reorganized,” he added. He said his team will release his platform at a later time.

Up to three Saipan senatorial seats are up for grabs in November.