Article 18 opinion irks Atalig

Saipan Municipal Council member Felipe Q. Atalig disagrees with Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s legal counsel, Howard P. Willens, on the issue of Article 18, saying that Willens’ recent analysis of the article is only his “personal opinion.”

In a letter, Atalig urged Willens not be “wishy-washy in upholding the sanctity of the Covenant and the application of the Northern Mariana Islands Constitution.”

“As a government legal adviser for the Commonwealth, you are ethically duty-bound to protect and defend vigorously the Covenant and the Constitution of the Commonwealth,” Atalig said.

The council member also advised Willens not to be guided by his “lofty wisdom of reversed liberalism.”

The governor had recently opposed the voting registration procedures that seek to implement the provisions of Article 18 (5)(c) of the CNMI Constitution. Fitial had urged the CNMI Election Commission to stop the ongoing registration of Northern Marianas descent, saying that allowing only those who are considered NMI descent to vote on the fate of Article 12 is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Fitial, who based his decision on Willens’ legal opinion, said that his reasons for opposing the registration requirements were of “legal, political, and practical in nature.”

Atalig said Willens is not the same person he used to know “when we were drafting my proposal on Article 18.”

“You [Willens] courageously defended Article 12 with no expression of what you [are now saying as] unconstitutional,” Atalig said.

Willens, who analyzed Article 18 (5)(c) with the help of Professor Ronald D. Rotunda of George Mason University in Virginia, said that the Commonwealth is entitled to limit the right to own land in the CNMI to persons considered Northern Marianas descent but the voting restrictions imposed by Article 18 (5)(c) would be invalidated by the courts if it were challenged under the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Atalig said that Article 18 Section 805 (a) of the Covenant is a “facet of the United States Public Law 94-241, which was also adopted by Joint Resolution by the 94th United States Congress and the product of a Presidential Proclamation No. 4534.

He urged the Legislature, the Municipal Council and the Board of Election not to consider the “personal opinion” of Willens as final.

“I’d like to suggest to continue the registration on NMDs and [in the case of] any disagreements, let them challenge it through Article IV, Section II of our Constitution on certified legal questions,” Atalig said.