CPA chief hosts fundraiser for Rota’s Hocog-Santos tandem

Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero hosted Saturday night a $200-per-ticket fundraiser for Rota senatorial and House member candidates Victor Hocog and Rep. Teresita Santos (Ind-Rota), 17 days after Deleon Guerrero fired as CPA Rota manager the brother of Hocog’s opponent, Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota).

Deleon Guerrero is the second vice chairman of the CNMI Republican Party that is currently chaired by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial.

Fitial, who has been publicly feuding with Manglona, attended the Hocog-Santos fundraiser, which Republicans said yesterday raised some $15,000.

The governor has been actively involved in the Hocog-Santos campaign, which is running against Manglona and his running mate, former Department of Public Safety-Rota resident director Felix Santos. The two Santoses are cousins.

Senate floor leader Pete Reyes (R-Saipan), former Public Works secretary Juan Reyes and former senator Joseph Mendiola were at the fundraiser.

Manglona, when asked for comment, said Deleon Guerrero’s hosting of a fundraiser for Hocog, just over two weeks after firing his brother, long-time CPA Rota manager Thomas Manglona, raises suspicions on the nature of the termination.

“Here’s a guy who said the termination was not politically motivated, but his decision to host a fundraiser at his house for a political candidate makes you suspect the motive. He terminated my brother whose contract was renewed only last month,” he said.

The Senate president said, “It’s very clear that the CPA executive director and the governor continue to play politics. And the governor continues to wear his political hat when we have all these crises in the CNMI.”

Fitial, in a separate interview, said he will talk at a proper venue about his plans of action for the CNMI in the face of the NMI Retirement Fund’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and another state of emergency declaration for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.

The governor said he extended the emergency declaration so he could continue to help CHC.

The executive order allows for both the reprogramming of funds to prevent a hospital shutdown and for the corporation to continue to contract with International Consulting Services LLC for medical billing services without going through standard procurement rules.

Fitial said Attorney General Edward Buckingham continues to review the ICS contract.

“I intend to continue the ICS contract but it will not be the way it was structured in the beginning. I don’t want to discuss because the AG is still working on the details,” he said.

Fitial has been planning to hold news briefings every Thursday.

Manglona and other lawmakers called on the governor to deliver a State of the Commonwealth Address so that the public would know his plans of action to stem the crises.