And the blame game begins

Lawmakers’ reactions were swift when power services to public schools and the hospital were cut off because of outstanding bills, but they were not fast enough to help prevent the utility disconnections in the first place when they failed to agree on the fate of Rep. Ray Basa’s (Cov-Saipan) $11.58-million line of credit bill.

Rep. Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan), however, is taking a different approach.

She instead told Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Abe Malae that CUC should have considered disconnecting power first to the Legislature and the Office of the Governor before cutting off power to public schools.

“I hope you will find it within your authority to send your hardworking staff back and reconnect the power to the schools immediately so that out students may return to their normal schedule,” Maratita told Malae.

Maratita and Rep. Tony Sablan (R-Saipan) separately expressed their disappointment with CUC.

“The disconnection of the power to the schools affected could have been averted had you honored the Memorandum of Agreement in place with the Public School System. Your action is an indication of your arrogance, recklessness, and is irresponsible. It further demonstrates your management style. You should have considered other means to resolve this problem such as disconnecting the Legislature and the Governor’s Office first,” Maratita said.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) said two weeks have passed since the Senate amended and passed an $11.58 million line of credit bill that would have given the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. some $6 million and CUC a total of $5 million, but the House is not taking action on it.

Manglona said the Senate-amended bill would have prevented CUC from cutting power to CHC and PSS, and Gov. Benigno R. Fitial need not have declared a state of emergency.

The Fitial administration and some House members blamed the Senate, however, for amending the House bill, the provisions of which were long agreed upon by CHC and the Marianas Public Land Trust.

Senators, meanwhile, passed the buck to House members for sitting on the bill.

House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) has yet to issue a formal notice of a House session to act on the bill-whether to reject the Senate-substituted bills and call for a conference committee, or accept the bill and send it to the governor for action.

Rep. Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan) said that, had the Senate acted swiftly on the House bill in January or early February, the crisis at CHC wouldn’t have gotten worse.

Manglona said that Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos had made the Senate aware as early as two weeks ago about the possible utility disconnection to CHC and PSS because of outstanding utility debts.

He said this was the reason why the Senate amended the bill to give $3.5 million to CUC for PSS’ outstanding utility bills and another $1.5 million to CUC for CHC’s outstanding utility debts. The Senate version would give CHC some $6 million line of credit, plus $1.58 million for its electronic health system.

“I respectfully ask the House to act on the bill. It’s unfortunate that school children are the ones made to suffer,” Manglona said.

He said if the House chooses to reject the Senate-amended bill, the Senate is willing to go into a conference committee and hash out their differences and immediately help CHC, CUC and PSS.

Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, also called on the House to consider the Senate version of bill that helps not only CHC but also PSS and CUC.

“Is the bill important to them? If so, why have they not acted on the Senate-amended bill? Whether they reject it or approve it, they should have done something two weeks ago. Up to now we haven’t heard of any scheduled House session, while the Senate stands ready to hold a session if need be,” he said.

Rep. Tony Sablan (R-Saipan) said he was also expecting the House leadership to call a session two weeks ago but never did.

“We shouldn’t have allowed weekends and weekdays to go by without acting on a bill such as this. Now we have areas in our schools and the hospital without power. We could have prevented all these things,” Sablan said.