Edward Manibusan
CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan held a press conference on Wednesday morning to talk about a recent flag-burning incident, the BOOST probe, and the task force investigating white-collar cases.
“The AG’s office is currently not taking action while we are currently waiting for the report…from the Department of Public Safety,” Manibusan said referring to the flag-burning incident.
Edwin Raymond Borja Quitugua, a Chamorro activist, burned a CNMI flag that he owned and live streamed the event on social media. He believes that the only “true indigenous people” of the Northern Marianas are Chamorros.
Manibusan said, “We don’t file any cases unless we receive an official report from law enforcement, and that’s all we are waiting for — and once we get that, we will review the matter and consider whether or not charges are appropriate.”
CNMI law prohibits destroying or damaging the Commonwealth flag. In the U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on burning the American flag was established in the landmark case Texas v. Johnson (1989). The court ruled that flag burning constitutes symbolic speech safeguarded by the First Amendment. The ruling affirmed the right to engage in this form of expression as a protected constitutional right.
Manibusan said federal and CNMI laws will be considered.
He said charges can be filed based on whether there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed.
“We look at the statutes…and if we believe that there are defenses and we think that those defenses will prevail, we may consider not filing charges,” Manibusan added.
“The issue will be, I have a First Amendment right to protest. You’ve seen news articles, and you’ve seen press reports and people over the world burning flags…so that’s a sign of protest [and] that’s something that we will consider,” he added.
BOOST
As for the federally funded Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program, Manibusan said: “As you know, there are a number of investigations going on…. The Legislature is investigating, and we have received a number of different kinds of complaints or information, and we are looking into all of those. We are probably going to wait for an…official investigation report from the Legislature and we will also consider those.”
Task force
The AG said the white-collar crimes task force, now known as the Public Integrity Task Force, is currently prosecuting four cases: 1) CNMI v. Ralph DLG Torres, 2) CNMI v. Nick M. Reyes (the bench trial started on April 22 and is ongoing), 3) CNMI v. Ivan Mereb, and 4) CNMI v. Shayne Villanueva.
Manibusan said the task force, which is led by Assistant Attorney General James Robert Kingman, has also received from the House of Representatives statements of contempt for former Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig as well as former BOOST contractors Robert Travilla and Salina Sapp. Like Villanueva, they invoked their Fifth Amendment right when a House committee asked them about the BOOST program.
The CNMI’s first elected AG, Manibusan said he promised Commonwealth citizens that he would investigate public corruption, “so the task force was created years ago…and throughout the transition we finally have a managing prosecutor,” referring to Kingman.
Asked about the slow pace of the case against former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres that was filed in April 2022, Manibusan said, “I cannot comment any further…but we hope…and when the community desires to see cases disposed of quickly so people can move on with their lives…I hope that in this particular case it moves on through the process more quickly — that is all I can say about this case.”
Asked whether the task force is focused on the BOOST investigation, Manibusan said, “Not necessarily. The people in the community will call our office, and they will file complaints and give us information from different sources. We have our hotlines, the [Office of the Public Auditor] has their hotline. There are ways that people can report to the office and, when we receive information, we review the information. If it requires further investigation, we will proceed with further investigation. There are cases where there is information, where we generally just say there’s no basis for going forward, so we close [the case].”
Asked who makes the decision on whether to issue arrest warrants or court penal summons in ongoing cases, Manibusan said “that is the discretion of the prosecuting attorney.” He declined to elaborate.
A former director of the Department of Public Safety, Manibusan is also a former appointed AG and presiding judge of the CNMI Superior Court.
He was elected AG in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2022.
