DEPARTMENT of Public Safety-Boating Safety Lt. Emery Kaipat said he submitted a statement that the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations did not include in the official record of the hearing it conducted on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.
Chaired by Rep. Celina R. Babauta, the committee is looking into the public expenditures of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.
Kaipat said the committee “denied my reasonable request to testify in Carolinian and to have the questions directed toward me to be translated into Carolinian as well.”
He said on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2021, the committee issued a subpoena commanding him to appear and testify before the panel.
“I understand the importance of testifying before the House committee and I took the subpoena to appear very seriously. That is why I requested to testify in Carolinian, which is a right provided to me by the CNMI Constitution,” he said in a letter to the committee on Aug. 31, 2021.
He noted that the Constitution protects his rights.
“The Constitution is the highest law in the CNMI. And the inclusion of Chamorro and Carolinian as the official languages of the Commonwealth in the Constitution is a recognition of the culture and traditions of our people. The government should encourage the usage and preservation of our native languages. Instead, the committee’s decision to deny my simple and reasonable request to have its questions translated into Carolinian turned my testimony into a big spectacle, which only discouraged the use and preservation of our native languages,” he said.
Kaipat said the CNMI Supreme Court’s opinion also protects his rights.
“The Supreme Court is the highest court in the CNMI and has ruled that a native speaker has an absolute right when it comes to his native language. The CNMI Supreme Court has said that it is not about proficiency in English. I am a native Carolinian. Carolinian is my native tongue that I grew up speaking, and it is the language that I am most comfortable with,” he said.
“To be clear, I never stated that I was unable to understand English. I can speak English and Chamorro as well. But, I understand best in Carolinian. This is not an issue of my proficiency in English and this is not an attempt to delay my testimony. This is about making sure that I understand your questions fully and clearly, so that I may provide the best response. And most importantly, this is about promoting and preserving the culture of our islands.”
He said the committee “questioned the content of my notice to speak in Carolinian, but has laid no rules or procedures on how to go about making such a request or how any of those requests are processed. The committee also doesn’t have any procedures for how translations are made at hearings. When a prior witness provided the same notice to testify, but in Chamorro, a translator sat next to the chairwoman and statements by both the committee and the witness were translated right after they were spoken. At the next hearing for the same witness, the committee decided to limit translations only to when questions were directed at the witness. Now, the committee insists that it will only provide translations when I request them. Yet, when I did request on record for each of the committee’s questions to be translated after they were asked, the committee still refused to do so.”
During the hearing on Friday, the committee’s official Carolinian or Refaluwasch translator, Jesus Elameto, read a prepared statement, scolding Kaipat for “disrupting” the proceedings.
Committee members, for their part, asked Kaipat several questions about the governor’s trips to Guam using DPS Boating Safety boats.
To most of the questions, Kaipat’s answers in Carolinian were either “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know.”
Department of Public Safety-Boating Safety Lt. Emery Kaipat, right, and his legal counsel, Anthony Aguon, appeared before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations last week.
