MPLA exec says AGO manipulating Finance

Marianas Public Lands Authority commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero accused the Attorney General’s Office of manipulating the Department of Finance to freeze land compensation claims endorsed by him.

“The Department of Finance is withholding subsequent land compensation requisitions based on the unfounded fear of the Office of the Attorney General over commissioner DeLeon Guerrero’s authority,” the commissioner’s attorney, Ramon Quichocho said.

“Ostensibly, the Department of Finance has been manipulated by the Office of the Attorney General to hold hostage land compensation requisitions bearing the signature of commissioner DeLeon Guerrero,” he said.

The accusation forms part of Guerrero’s submission to the Superior Court Friday, which asked for the dismissal of the complaint initiated by attorney general Pamela Brown to stop the release of some $3.45 million in land compensation claim by the Malite estate.

Quichocho made a separate submission besides joining the MPLA and its board in asking for the dismissal, saying that his client was improperly included in the lawsuit.

Brown had also sued the Commonwealth Development Authority and Malite estate administrator Jesus Tudela. The suit, however, did not name the Finance Department as co-defendant.

Quichocho said the suit should be dismissed partly because of the failure by the AGO to include the Finance Department as defendant. He said the Finance Department is the constitutional entity that has authority to control and regulate public funds—not the AGO.

Quichocho also said that the commissioner should be excluded from the suit because only the MPLA board has the power to sue and be sued. He also argued that Brown failed to exhaust administrative remedies by failing to appeal the MPLA’s determination before its board, in connection with the land compensation claim by the Malite estate.

The MPLA, its board, and commissioner had jointly asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that Brown is not the lawful attorney general who has the constitutional authority to prosecute violations of Commonwealth law.

They contend that the CNMI has no lawful attorney general since Sept. 15, 2003, asserting that Brown’s nomination by the government failed to get Senate confirmation within the 90-day statutory deadline.

Brown filed the lawsuit after the MPLA, reportedly with the consent of the CDA, announced that they would go ahead with the release of the land compensation to the Malite estate on Dec. 6 despite her objections.

She questioned the amount of compensation and its release, contending that the claim was spurious. The MPLA board approved the land compensation claim, a matter that was already decided by the Trust Territory court in 1978.

That court determined the compensation for condemnation of a parcel of land, which now forms part of Saipan’s Marianas High School, in the amount of $3,682. The Commonwealth government obtained title to the land as a result of the condemnation. The Malite heirs, however, claimed that they did not receive any payment from the government regarding the land taking.