House approves Fitial extradition resolution

The House of Representatives debated and adopted yesterday a resolution “respectfully requesting” Gov. Eloy S. Inos to take the necessary steps for the extradition of former governor Benigno R. Fitial to face the criminal charges filed against him.

House Resolution 18-56, authored by acting speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan) and six other members, passed at 2:47pm by a vote of 13-3, with one abstention and three absences.

An official copy of the resolution will now be sent to Inos, who just came back from Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings.

This comes a little over a year since Fitial stepped down on Feb. 20, just before the start of his impeachment trial at the Senate to determine whether he should be removed from office. The House impeached him on 18 charges of corruption, felony, and neglect of duty.

The three who voted “no” to adopt the resolution were Reps. Antonio Agulto (Ind-Saipan), Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan), and Richard Seman (R-Seman).

Agulto voted in 2013 to impeach Fitial, while Ogumoro and Seman voted against impeaching Fitial in 2012 and 2013.

Rep. George Camacho (R-Saipan) abstained from voting yesterday. In 2012 and 2013, Camacho voted “no” to most of the articles of impeachment against Fitial.

The three absent members yesterday were Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), Reps. Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan), and Ray Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan).

Guerrero is in Washington, D.C., while Tebuteb is off-island for a family medical concern. Deleon Guerrero was the main author of the 2012 and 2013 resolutions to impeach Fitial. Tebuteb was a co-sponsor of the impeachment resolutions in 2012 and 2013. Benavente supported the impeachment in 2013 but recently said extradition is a “sensitive matter.”

The 13 other members present yesterday voted “yes” to adopt the resolution in the following order: Reps. Antonio Benavente (Ind-Saipan), main author Dela Cruz, Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan), Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan), John Paul Saipan (Cov-Saipan), Teresita Santos (R-Rota), Mario Taitano (Ind-Saipan), Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan), Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan), Trenton Conner (Ind-Tinian), Larry Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), and Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan).

Santos previously voted against impeaching Fitial but now supports extraditing the former governor. Demapan voted “yes” yesterday “with reservation.”

In yesterday’s floor debate, Ogumoro told her colleagues to focus on “pressing matters” such as restoring the 25-percent cut in retirees’ pension and the higher health insurance premium.

Ogumoro said that lawmakers should have confidence on individuals and agencies tasked and paid to do extradition-related matters.

Dela Cruz, at that point, stepped down as acting speaker to be able to participate in the debate and assigned Rep. Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan) to temporarily preside over the session.

Dela Cruz said police and ports police officers are facing criminal charges for things they did upon receiving orders from “somebody” they “feared,” referring to Fitial.

“They are charged in the court of law for something that they did for somebody so the problem we have right now is that somebody is not here…Even the former AG [former attorney general Edward Buckingham] stated it wasn’t his idea for government resources to be used for escorts. He was pointing to somebody but then again that somebody is not here. No one is above the law and we keep on hearing it and we keep repeating it…” Dela Cruz said.

Buckingham was already found guilty of corruption and other charges, many of them the same charges that Fitial faces.

The extradition resolution’s main author asked whether it is fair that members of the Department of Public Safety and the Commonwealth Ports Authority ports police are made to face the charges against them but not Fitial who ordered them to do the very things they are now charged with in court.

“…and somebody is saying, ‘let this go. This, too shall pass.’ As legislators, as representatives of the people, we should ensure we do what we can to [help] bring people to court if we see wrongdoings were made,” Dela Cruz said.

He added that the resolution is “merely suggesting he [Inos] does something,” including calling U.S. Attorney Alicia Limtiaco for assistance.

Dela Cruz, like others who supports the resolution, acknowledges that extraditing someone from outside the United States is a function of the federal government but the process starts from within the CNMI.

“If we don’t do [anything] then this would be a chapter in CNMI government that has never cleared away with. This is not about me against another individual. This is about bringing justice in the CNMI. So people outside say we are doing something right, or we will be as guilty [if we don’t do anything],” Dela Cruz said.

Leon Guerrero, for his part, said that even if the resolution goes through, it will still be up to Inos to do something, and reminded his colleagues about the costly extradition process, especially because it involves a foreign country. But Leon Guerrero, a former police officer, pointed out he supports the resolution.

Seman later said the House has already done its job in impeaching Fitial, so the extradition process should be left to other agencies. He was among the four in 2013 that voted against impeaching Fitial.

A legislative resolution is only an expression of a legislative body’s position on certain issues.

Fitial is believed to be in the Philippines where his wife hails from. The Philippines has an extradition treaty with the United States.

Inos, while he was still in Washington, D.C. last week, issued a statement saying that international extradition is a function of the federal government and not the local government.

In an interview after the House session at around 5:30pm yesterday, Dela Cruz said he earlier planned to introduce a House joint resolution but later changed this to only a House resolution to give the Senate a chance to introduce one on its own.

“I give respect to the Senate, to have the chance to introduce their own resolution if they so choose. Hopefully the Senate will follow suit,” the acting speaker added.