Earlier, Senator Surangel Whipps, Jr. called for the conduct of an oversight or public hearing on the case in light of the “questionable” dismissal from the case of several individuals close to Pres. Toribiong.
Citing insufficiency of evidence, the AGO early this month dropped all charges against Senate President Mlib Tmetuchl and Lucius Malsol, who is a brother of Pres. Toribiong.
Whipps said that either the JGA Committee chaired by Toribiong or the Ways and Means Committee headed by Sen. Mark Rudimch can initiate an oversight hearing to erase all lingering doubts and for the public to know what really happened.
In an interview, Sen. Joel Toribiong, chairman of the JGA, said that he sees no need to conduct such hearing.
“No way. I am not going to do it. There is no reason to do it. When the court dismisses your case I don’t think there is a need to conduct an oversight. I think Congress should respect the justice system,” he stressed.
“He (Whipps) feels the whole system is so screwed up. He thinks we need to conduct an oversight on every movement the court does, the attorney general office’s does. Everybody who feels that is way beyond his call of duty,” the senator added.
Toribiong charged that Whipps is “playing with politics “and using the Legislature to advance his own political agenda.
“When his political agenda doesn’t move on, then he starts using the Congress to play politics. Congress doesn’t do that. Congress believes in a good justice system,” he said.
“Don’t take one man’s word and challenge the whole system. If he wants to conduct an oversight or he wants to question them, let him do it. Because you don’t believe in these guys you cannot push the Congress to work for you. Congress is the place for the majority. If the majority doesn’t believe what you are doing, and unfortunately they don’t believe in what you are doing. It is a political decision,” Toribiong concluded.
