“WE need to have a deadline on this,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday regarding a House committee investigation into his executive expenditures.
“I gave them a timeframe,” he added, referring to the Democrat-led House. “Write me a letter [with] questions [and] whatever your concerns [are], and I’ll come back and answer your questions and concerns. Again, stop dragging all of our innocent government employees, [causing] anxiety [among] them and their families. You have your questions and you have your documents. Write me a letter and I’ll answer those,” he added.
The Republican governor said he has not ruled out appearing in person before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee.
“I didn’t say that there’s no chance [that I will testify in person]. I’m just saying that you…got to put a timeline on this. There’s no timeline for them, so I wrote that letter and I asked that we respect the process. I wrote that letter and I’ll wait for their response,” he added.
In his letter last week to the House JGO chair, Rep. Celina R. Babauta, the governor reiterated that he has done nothing wrong.
He also said that the committee should provide him with a list of questions in writing by Monday, Nov. 15, and he will then provide responses explaining the legality and the causes for his actions and decisions as expeditiously as possible.
“The members of your party may not like the answers, but I have no reason to not provide the truth,” he said.
He added that if “there were any issues of substance discovered in the two years of [the Democratic] party’s search for wrongdoings, formal accusations should have been levied. Yet none exists.”
He also noted that as per House Rules of Procedure adopted by the 22nd Legislature, committees are required to submit a report to the House speaker within 60 days after a matter was referred to a committee.
This time period has since lapsed and no report has been produced, the governor said.
In a virtual interview with KUAM’s Thomas Manglona II last week, House JGO committee chair Babauta said, “So far, no governor has ever been ‘harassed’ [by the Legislature] for this long? Well, no other governor has been raided by the FBI. Let’s put it that way.”
She added, “There is a serious concern from the public, from the Legislature. We are a separate branch and we’re doing our job.”
“As far as slander and misinformation,” she said, “the documents speak for themselves. We certainly haven’t ever come out in a newspaper and informed the public of any lies. The documents speak for themselves.”
Ralph DLG Torres
