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Widow of slain police officer asks court to stop DOLI departure order
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Posted on Dec 21 2000
The Filipino widow of slain police officer Abraham Sablan Quitugua yesterday asked the Superior Court to order Department of Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark D. Zachares and the CNMI government to issue her a non-alien immediate relative entry permit.
In a petition filed by Josephine V. Quitugua through her lawyer Jane Mack of the Micronesian Legal Services Corp., the court was asked to stop DOLI from enforcing an order issued on Nov. 28, 2000 ordering her to leave the Commonwealth in 20 days.
Ms. Quitugua married Abraham Sablan Quitugua in Saipan on Dec. 4, 1981. But Mr. Quitugua died after he was gunned down on Nov. 29, 1983 while on duty as a police officer for the Department of Public Safety.
After the death of her husband, she returned to the Philippines and stayed there for several years. She was issued a non-alien immediate relative entry permit when she returned in 1991 through Nov. 17, 1994.
In June 1994, she returned to the Philippines due to her father’s illness and even when he died in Oct. 1994, Ms. Quitugua remained in the Philippines to take care of her mother.
Ms. Quitugua then returned to Saipan on Feb. 20, 2000 after showing her expired non-alien immediate relative entry permit and was given a tourist entry permit with instructions from the CNMI immigration officials to have a new non-alien immediate relative entry permit issued to her.
On March 7, 2000, Ms. Quitugua filed the necessary application to have a new non-alien immediate relative entry permit issued to her. Eight months later, acting Director of Division of Immigration Maj. Thomas O Sablan denied her application for a non-alien immediate relative entry permit stating that the status does not exist. Mr. Zachares also denied the appeal of Ms. Quitugua on Nov. 28, 2000.
According to the petition, the decision of DOLI that Ms. Quitugua does not have an immediate relative status is erroneous, arbitrary and capricious. (Lindablue F. Romero)
