At issue is whether the LB director’s appointment lasts indefinitely or is subject to the appointment and official acknowledgment as a whole by the real time and current joint leadership of a new term CNMI Legislature.
Article II, Section 17 (a) of the CNMI Constitution states: “The bureau shall be headed by a director to be appointed by the joint leadership of the Legislature consisting of the presiding officers, vice presiding officers, floor leaders and the chairmen of the standing committees.”
Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, cited a letter from then-Speaker Arnold I. Palacios who stated that “the appointment of Mrs. Reyes as practically the same, if not the equivalent of, appointing her husband the Senate president to the directorship.”
Mrs. Reyes’ husband is then-Senate President and now Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan.
“Furthermore, we cannot ignore the potential problems nepotism brings to the employment setting,” stated Palacios in a letter to then-Sen. Maria T. Pangelinan.
It was Palacios and Pangelinan who signed Mrs. Reyes’ employment contract.
Tenorio is now questioning Pangelinan’s authority to approve Mrs. Reyes’ employment contract because her position as then-Senate legislative secretary is not on the list of appointing authorities under the Constitution.
But Torres, Ind.-Saipan, believes Mrs. Reyes should stay as LB director in accordance with her contract.
But Tenorio said the contract was never valid in the first place because only two members of the Legislature approved it.
