‘Incoming leadership’ boycotts Senate session

One of Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s board nominations was automatically rejected yesterday after a scheduled Senate session was canceled due to lack of quorum.

The 30-day period given to the Senate to confirm Benita Manglona’s re-nomination to the Marianas Public Lands Authority board of directors lapsed yesterday. Babauta submitted the nomination letter to the Senate on Nov. 14, 2005.

“It is considered rejected. MPLA is a unique board. The law that created it set a 30-day limit for the confirmation of its board members,” said Senate Floor Leader Paul A. Manglona, the brother-in-law of the nominee.

The Senate normally has 90 days to confirm nominations to board, commission, or agencies.

The agenda for the postponed Senate session included seven other nominations.

Only four of the nine senators showed up for the session, which was supposed to begin at 10am. They are Senate President Joaquin Adriano and senators Diego Songao, Luis Crisostimo, and Manglona.

Benita Manglona, along with fellow MPLA director Nicolas Nekai and MPLA attorney Ray Quichocho, also came for the session.

They waited until 2pm, but a quorum was not reached.

Those who failed to appear were senators Joseph Mendiola, Pete Reyes, Henry San Nicolas, Paterno Hocog, and Thomas Villagomez.

Except for Villagomez, all of the absent senators are members of the Covenant Party-led alliance that will form the leadership of the 15th Senate.

In a phone interview, incoming Senate President Mendiola said he did not make it to the session because he had to go to another meeting.

However, Mendiola also said that he decided against attending the session because he did not want to be part of the current Senate leadership’s efforts to confirm the outgoing administration’s nominations.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s obviously a last-ditch attempt to put their people to boards and commissions. They should give the next governor the opportunity to select his own people,” Mendiola said.

For his part, Adriano said that the 14th Senate should work until its last day in office.

“We’re still senators until Jan. 8. We should act on everything the administration passes on to us. It’s not yet the end of the 14th Senate,” he said.

He added, “Everybody has been given a notice of the session today. But it appears that Senator Mendiola and his group has decided to boycott the session. I don’t understand why. Whether these nominations will be confirmed or not is not a one-man decision. Why don’t they just attend the session and vote “no” if they don’t want some people confirmed? I’m not forcing anybody to support the nominations.”

The other nominees waiting to be confirmed are Galvin Deleon Guerrero and Jose C. Sablan for the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents; Herman R. Guerrero and Juan S. Torres for the Marianas Public Land Trust; William S. Torres for the Marianas Visitors Authority; Felicidad T. Ogumoro for the Commonwealth Ports Authority board of directors; and David M. Cing for the Commonwealth Election Commission.