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Villagomez likely House speaker
Joel Camacho may be voted vice speaker; Propst as floor leader
Edmund S. Villagomez
House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) will likely remain the speaker of the 23rd Legislature.
Multiple sources at the Legislature disclosed that the majority in the 23rd House will likely vote for Villagomez as speaker during the inauguration and organizational session this Monday since 13 members are independents and is the chamber’s new majority,
In the 2022 general election, Villagomez received 1,945 votes—just two votes shy of Precinct 3 top vote-getter, House vice speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao (Ind-Saipan), based on the Commonwealth Election Commission’s official tabulation results in the Nov. 8, 2022 general elections.
It will be his seventh term in the House.
Villagomez took over the speaker position in January 2021 after Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan), at the time a Republican, flipped his vote and broke the even split in the fourth voting for the speakership, ending the impasse in the 22nd House inauguration and organizational session.
The voting ended the Republican Party’s decades-old control of the House and completed the ascendance of the NMI Democratic Party.
Source also disclosed that Rep. Joel C. Camacho (Ind-Saipan) will likely be voted as vice speaker, while Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) will be the floor leader.
The 23rd House is composed of 13 independents, four Democrats, and three Republicans.
Former House speaker Oscar M. Babauta said yesterday that it is the first time in the CNMI history that independents compose the majority in the House.
The independents are Villagomez, Vincent Raymon S. Aldan, Roman C. Benavente, Joseph Arriola Flores, Manny Gregory T. Castro, John Paul P. Sablan, Attao, Marissa Renee Flores, Yumul, Joel C. Camacho, Malcom Omar, Angelo Atalig Camacho, and Julie Marie Atalig Ogo.
The four Democrats are Diego Vincent Fejeran Camacho, Edwin K. Propst, Vicente Castro Camacho, and Denita K. Yangetmai.
The three Republicans are Roy Christopher Ada, Thomas John Dela Cruz Manglona, and Patrick H. San Nicolas.
