3 ‘problems’ cited in $120,000 Rydlyme contract

The head of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s Procurement and Supply Division said yesterday that he did not sign the $120,000 sole-source contract to purchase Rydlyme because of three “main problems.”

As this developed, the twelfth day of the trial of Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez and co-defendants James A. Santos and Joaquina V. Santos saw the number of jurors down to 15, including three alternate jurors. The trial began with 18 jurors, including six alternate jurors.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson also denied Villagomez’s new motion to dismiss the case.

During questioning by assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley, Procurement and Supply manager Manuel Borja Sablan said he refused to sign CUC’s $120,000 sole-source contract with Blue Pacific because of three main problems.

First, Sablan said, the contract was completely in violation of procurement regulations because of conflict of interest. Joaquina Santos, owner of Blue Pacific, is a brother of Villagomez. Joaquina Santos’ husband is James Santos, who was then the Commerce Secretary.

Second, Sablan said, he received confirmation from one of his staff, Joseph Fejeran, and other employees that they still have enough Rydlyme stored at CUC.

Third, Sablan said, Villagomez was pushing then CUC executive director Anthony Guerrero to get the contract done.

Sablan told Ramon Quichocho, counsel for Joaquina V. Santos, that he took extra steps to get quotations from other vendors of Rydlyme, disobeying then CUC executive director Guerrero’s order. He said he did it for the best interest of CUC.

Sablan said even in the absence of the contract and the notice to proceed the purchase, a supply of Rydlyme was already en route to the CNMI at the time.

When Blue Pacific delivered the product to the CUC warehouse, Sablan said this caused CUC inventory specialist Joseph Sablan Crisostomo to raise the red flag with the Office of the Public Auditor.

“They’ve been doing it in the past, they should know better,” he said.

Sablan said the signatories in the contract were forced to sign it based on his personal conversation with those people.

He said CUC management specialist Grina Mizutani went to his office for the contract and that he found it “very unusual, very extremely unusual.”

Meanwhile, David Lujan, counsel for Villagomez, asked the court Tuesday to dismiss the case because one of the witnesses, Joseph Fejeran, was a potential juror, was oriented with the others, and may have talked with the other jurors about the case.

Attorneys Victorino Torres and Quichocho, counsel for James Santos and Joaquina Santos, joined in the motion.

Munson said there would be an evidentiary hearing where the court would inquire as to whether the witness had spoken to any of the other potential jurors prior to the trial.

One juror then asked to be excused due to a family emergency. The prosecution and the defense did not object. Munson excused the juror.

Munson asked the jurors whether any of them spoke with Fejeran about this case before the trial. All jurors said they have not talked with any of the witnesses or potential jurors about the case prior to the trial.

Munson denied the motion to dismiss.

Munson also excused one juror after learning that she was related to one of the witnesses. The juror said she did not realize the situation until witness Manuel Sablan appeared in court. The court earlier also excused one male juror.