Manglona: Act on impeachment soon so we can go back to doing our homework

Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) is urging his fellow senators to move on with the impeachment hearings of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres without delay, saying the sooner they put it behind them, the faster will they get back to doing their homework and take on the difficult task of passing a truly balanced budget for the government’s operations.

At the Senate’s session Thursday, Manglona underscored the need to have a balanced budget that fairly and reasonably allocates the resources of the CNMI government, including all American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“This is the only way we can avoid going to a place far worse than where we were prior to getting all the federal financial assistance,” he said.

Manglona

The senator said he is sure each of them are being pressured by the public to do something about Torres’ alleged violations of government funds and public trust, as outlined in House Resolution 22-14.

H.R. 22-14 impeached Torres for alleged commission of felonies, corruption, and neglect of duty.

Torres has repeatedly stated that he has done anything illegal and that he has trust in the Senate’s ability to conduct an impeachment trial with transparency, with proper decorum, and in accordance with a set of published rules.

At the end of the Senate session last Thursday, Senate president Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) requested the co-chairs of the two committees that are reviewing the impeachment resolution to come up with impeachment rules within 14 days.

Manglona asked his colleagues that they immediately entertain a resolution that he and Sen. Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) had introduced and prefiled last Jan. 18 that proposes to use the Impeachment Rules of Procedure that the 18th Senate had adopted in 2013 for the impeached then-governor Benigno R. Fitial.

He noted that under the 18th Senate impeachment rules, “a senator should not initiate, permit, or consider as ex-parte communications with House prosecutor and his or her staff, the governor and his counsel or staff of the governor or his counsel, or consider ex-parte communications or other communications made to the senator outside the presence of the parties concerning the impeachment pending before the Senate.”

“This rule, along with the others, is crucial to ensure the integrity of the impeachment hearing process,” Manglona said.

Ex-parte communication basically occurs when a party or someone involved with a party talks or writes a letter directly outside the presence of the other party.