Babauta: My allegiance is to the people, not to Palacios

Celina R. Babauta

In clarifying why she voted “no” to a motion to override Gov. Arnold I. Palacios’ veto on Sections 604 and 713 of the budget law during a special session Friday, Sen. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) said yesterday that her allegiance is to the people of the CNMI and not to Palacios.

“I have no allegiance to anybody, but the citizens who call the CNMI home,” said Babauta during a press conference in her office.

The senator called for the press briefing to explain further the reasons why she voted “no” to Senate floor leader Corina L. Magofna’s (Ind-Saipan) motion to override Palacios’ veto.

Section 604 refers to revised CNMI ARPA Spending Plan, while Section 713 pertains to giving access to the Legislature to the Munis Financial Management Information System of the CNMI government.

With four senators voting “yes,” two voting “no,” and three absences, the motion to override the veto did not pass the Senate.

Both Babauta and Sen. Dennis James C. Mendiola (R-Rota) voted “no.”

At the press briefing yesterday, Babauta described the override attempt itself as “an exercise in futility.”

Babauta said the CNMI Constitution’s rule on overriding a gubernatorial veto requires two thirds of votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and that means six votes in the Senate and 14 in the House.

Also, there is deadline on how soon to pass an override vote and Babauta said the 60th day mark was last Saturday—the day after the Senate session.

Babauta said even if she voted “yes” for the sake of being in solidarity with other senators present that day, it was an exercise in futility as the time to act on the bill expires the next day. She said the House wouldn’t even have an opportunity to look at the bill.

“The timing of it just didn’t make sense to me. And that’s why I could not have voted yes on that,” the senator said.

In response to a question during the briefing, Babauta acknowledged she did not raise the expiration issue during the session. She said it could have been that it was overlooked.

The senator said prior to the session, she did get copies of the records from the House and the Senate.

Babauta reiterated what she had stated on the floor during Friday’s session.

She said with respect to Section 604, a House bill, which has already passed the House, addresses that directly by requiring the administration to report any non-local—meaning all federal funding that arrives—to be reported to the Legislature.

Regarding Section 713, Babauta said there is also currently a House bill that addresses that specifically.

She said if the override passes, it only brings them to the end of this fiscal year, but if they pass the two House bills, it will permanently require and address the concerns with respect to the particular two sections of the amended budget bill that was line-item by Palacios.