THE House leadership on Friday prefiled House Resolution 22-14 calling for the impeachment of Republican Gov. Ralph DLG Torres who is accused of corruption, neglect of duty and felonies of theft. He has denied the allegations.
Those who had signed the resolution as of 11:30 a.m. Friday were Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao, House Floor Leader Ralph N. Yumul, Reps. Joel Camacho, Celina Babauta, Tina Sablan, Vicente Camacho, Richard Lizama, Corina Magofna, Edwin Propst and Denita Yangetmai.
Fourteen members are needed to adopt the resolution and impeach Torres who will be the second CNMI governor to be impeached. The first was Benigno R. Fitial who resigned before the nine-member Senate could hold a trial.
The House Democrat-independent leadership bloc has 11 members while four Republicans have publicly announced their support for the independent gubernatorial candidacy of Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios.
These 15 members are expected to vote for impeachment.
Rep. Tina Sablan, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, on Friday said the resolution will be introduced Monday, Dec. 20, 2021.
According to the CNMI Constitution, “The legislature may impeach those executive and judicial officers of the Commonwealth subject to impeachment under this Constitution. The House of Representatives may initiate impeachment proceedings by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members and the Senate may convict after hearing by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members.” At least six of the nine senators must convict the governor.
The Republican-independent bloc in the Senate has seven members.
Constitutional right
On Friday, Rep. Celina Babauta, who chairs the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee, issued the following statement:
“This morning, several of my colleagues and I filed House Resolution 22-14 calling for the impeachment of Gov. Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres…pursuant to Article II, Section 8 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth for commission of felonies, corruption, and neglect of duty, in violation of Article III, Section 19 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth.
“It is our constitutional right as bona fide, indigenous registered voters of the Northern Mariana Islands to partake in a democratic review of actions that our government and its officials exercise in the course of their duties.
“It is our purpose to determine whether the Governor’s actions warrant impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate; those judgments are constitutionally entrusted to the legislative branch. We have conducted an examination of the documents related to our duties as Representatives of the people of our Commonwealth.”
“In carrying out our inspection of the documents, we feel obliged to fully disclose information that constitutes grounds for impeachment that was based on the sworn testimony of numerous witnesses summoned before the JGO Committee.”
“When he took the Oath of Office on December 29, 2015, Governor Torres swore, before thousands of residents, that he would faithfully execute the Office of the Governor.
“The evidence has demonstrated that the people’s trust has been betrayed. The governor has shown himself unwilling and incapable of enforcing its laws for he has corrupted the rule of law.
“The articles of impeachment that we filed are the result of the investigation of the expenditures of Gov. Ralph Torres. We all have seen and heard the testimony and seen the documents that support the impeachment based on excessive spending, waste, and the governor’s abuse of his office. The evidence provided by police officers, his own Special Assistant for Administration, and his appointed Commissioner of Public Safety, who had the courage to appear and testify under oath, is irrefutable. They had nothing to hide. The sheer volume of the evidence provided by the Department of Finance, DPS, and the Administration is undisputable. The numbers don’t lie.
“The governor was given the opportunity pursuant to our subpoena and he declined to do so even after the committee offered to take the subpoena off the table and allow him to testify under oath voluntarily.
“As set forth in greater detail in the actual articles of impeachment, the governor misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for his personal benefit. He sought reimbursement for expenses that were not his own. This is money we could have used to support typhoon recovery, to fund local programs, to reduce furloughs, and to avoid austerity.”
