I’M very happy to be back to writing again after a long vacation in South America. Thank God that during my vacation in South America I didn’t encounter a storm that exactly reminded me of the movie called: “The Perfect Storm.”
But when I found out in the Marianas Variety that the ruling of Judge David Wiseman disqualified another judge from presiding over a land case, I immediately browsed through the articles to find out who was the judge that was affected by the ruling. If I’m not mistaken, it was Judge Juan T. Lizama. Justice must be restored back to Judge Juan Lizama. This appears to be a perfect storm lurking in the Marianas horizon. I hope it doesn’t reach Tinian, Rota or the Northern Islands for that matter.
Whether the ruling was right or wrong, right there, you have a perfect storm inside the courtroom. This means that there are two cyclonic storms perfectly courting and frictioning each other. The first cyclonic storm allegedly reported by scientists from NASA indicated that it measured 7.2 on the Richter scale. The wind is blowing in all directions. Everything in chaos. Everybody involved appears to be in the state of tornado better known as “rimulinu” in Chamorro.
However, it appears that there is only one person who is in the eye of the storm. This person is a hero and the true warrior. This person knows the storm and how to handle himself in storms. He does it by being in the eye of the storm, a calm and true warrior in times of crisis. This is attorney Antonio M. Atalig.
The perfect storm is barely moving away. The clock is ticking. And the tail of the storm has yet to pass over the Marianas channel.
Now focus your attention on how attorney Atalig handles himself in the storm of Judge Wiseman’s ruling. Judge Wiseman will surely be sorry for what he has done and what he has failed to do. I recently heard that he recused himself from hearing the case following an alleged letter regarding his bias and prejudice to the case. He appears to be in the tornado zone! The lesson to be learned is that Judge Wiseman should never have involved himself in the disqualification case or in other words, he should have never entered the tornado in the first place.
Attorney Atalig knows the storm. He knows how and when to swim the eye of a storm, and he knows when not to swim. He always remains in the eye of the storm. And he will remain there until the storm disappears and the sun shines, or by an act of Congress. This also means that when the sun shines, the name, integrity and reputation of Judge Juan T. Lizama is restored. At that point justice is restored in the house of justice.
Oh, I’m in a hurry right now to go to the Legislature. See you all for part 2 of this interesting issue.

RAY M. SAKISAT
San Jose, Tinian