He said he will ask Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, to join him in filing the certified question.
“Let’s see whether he has the guts to defend in court the expenditures they are making,” the speaker told the Variety.
Asked for comment, Reyes said he will not accommodate the request because there is no legal problem with the subsistence allowance at all.
“Why would I want to accommodate him when I have no case against the subsistence allowance? It comes out of their individual constitutional funding,” Reyes said, referring to the Rota and Tinian lawmakers’ budgets.
But Tenorio said the subsistence allowance that lawmakers from Rota and Tinian, including some from Saipan, is “just too much” considering that the CNMI government is in a deep financial crisis.
“I have every right to be concerned with the subsistence allowance. In order for me to spend $15 of my allotment to buy something I have to fill out a purchase order. But their [subsistence allowance] is spent without justification and documentation. No questions asked,” the speaker said.
The subsistence allowance is taken out from the annual miscellaneous funds that each lawmaker is entitled to receive. The CNMI Constitution puts a limit of $155,000 per lawmaker every year.
This FY 2010, each lawmaker receives around $99,000 in annual miscellaneous funds.
