THE Department of Public Works on Thursday withdrew its motion to dismiss the complaint of its former public information officer, Felipe Q. Atalig, who sued DPW for terminating him five years ago.
In his reply to Atalig’s opposition to DPW’s motion, Assistant Attorney General Charles P. Reyes Jr. said “DPW acknowledges that the Civil Service Commission did not file a certification of record within 30 days after the filing of the petition and docketing statement as required by the rules. In the interest of fairness and in moving the case forward to a decision on the merits, DPW therefore withdraws its motion to dismiss and asks the court to accept the record filed by both the petitioner and the Civil Service Commission, and to set a date for petitioner to file his opening brief.”
In an interview on Friday, Atalig, who is now 83 years old, said, “My brain is still functioning and I’m prepared to argue in court.”
DPW, through Assistant AG Reyes, earlier filed a motion to dismiss Atalig’s case for failure to timely file his opening brief.
In his opposition, Atalig, who represented himself, asked the Superior Court to deny DPW’s motion because it has no basis under existing law.
Atalig said DPW was mistaken when it stated that he had not registered for electronic filing. He said he had registered for electronic filing under the electronic filing rules. He said “it was DPW and the Civil Service Commission who did not comply with the certification requirements.”
According to Atalig, Rule 4(b), which is for designation and filing of records, is clear and mandatory: the Civil Service Commission shall file a certification of record within 30 days after filing of the petition and docketing statement.
He said he filed his petition for judicial review almost three years ago on Sept. 1, 2020.
Under the plain and mandatory language of Rule 4(b), he said the Civil Service Commission shall file a certification of record within 30 days or no later than Oct. 1, 2020.
Instead, Atalig said, the certification of record was filed on Feb. 3, 2023, in complete disregard of the mandatory requirements of Rule 4(b).
Noting that DPW filed the certification two years late, Atalig said the department also cited a wrong rule in arguing for the dismissal of his case.
Atalig said DPW’s withdrawal of its motion indicates that its counsel “has not carefully reviewed the entire issue of my motion, and as a result, DPW has been citing wrong rules.”
He said he was glad he was still able to recognize the deficiencies in DPW’s motion.
He also pointed out that on March 12, 2018, the attorney general told DPW that even if he, Atalig, was suspended or terminated, he shall be placed on administrative leave with pay, until he was charged and convicted.
Then-DPW Secretary James Ada terminated Atalig in March 2018 for alleged sexual harassment.
Atalig said he merely put his hand into an engineer’s pocket to “demonstrate a point” during an argument. But the engineer alleged that Atalig touched him inappropriately.
“Up to now, there’s no conviction, and it’s been over five years,” Atalig said, adding that then-DPW Secretary James Ada who terminated him was vested with an authority to settle the case.
Now, Atalig said, “the more they delay this, the more expensive this is going to be for the CNMI government.”
Felipe Q. Atalig
