Sen. Frank Q. Cruz, center, confers with Sen. Paul A. Manglona during a break from a Senate session on Monday last week. Also in the photo are Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider, Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero, Senate Vice President Donald Manglona and Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna.
SENATOR Frank Q. Cruz said Sen. Celina R. Babauta, D-Saipan, offered him membership on the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government and Law, which she chaired, but he didn’t feel welcome.
“To be honest, who’s willing to join when a person doesn’t really want you in her committee?” said Cruz, R-Tinian,
Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero, D-Saipan, has removed Babauta as JGL committee chair, and named Sen. Keith King-Nabors, R-Tinian, as its new head.
Th committee’s new vice chair is Sen. Dennis Mendiola, R-Rota, and the members are Cruz, Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider, R-Tinian, and Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna, Ind.-Saipan.
Prior to Babauta’s removal as committee chair, the vice chair was Sen. Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, and the members were Mendiola and Senate Vice President Donald Manglona, Ind.-Rota.
In July last year, Mendiola resigned from the committee, saying that a member from Tinian should be appointed instead.
Cruz said Babauta “offered [me a spot on the committee] right after Sen. Mendiola resigned from her committee. I also visited her at her office a few months prior to Sen. Mendiola’s resignation, asking to include one of my Tinian colleagues in her committee, but she never wanted any of us…. She wanted us to join her in her public hearings, but not as official members of the committee.”
Cruz said “only when there was an issue with quorum, then that was when she started reaching [out to] us.”
