THE House of Representatives on Friday unanimously adopted Rep. Angel Demapan’s House Resolution 22-8, supporting the renomination of District Court for NMI Chief Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona.
Prior to the adoption of the resolution, all the 20 members present voted yes to adopt the substitute version offered by Rep. Vicente C. Camacho who chairs the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Relations Affairs.
The original version “encouraged” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan to recommend to President Joe Biden to re-nominate Judge Manglona for another 10-year term.
The substitute resolution states that the House “expresses unanimous support for the renomination of the Honorable Ramona Villagomez Manglona to serve as Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands and further recognize her distinguished career as a jurist in and for the CNMI and the United States of America.”
The substitute version also contains more information about the chief judge’s record as well as her professional accomplishments in the last 10 years as a federal judge.
Camacho, after offering the substitute version, said the judge “has done us proud as a people and as a Commonwealth — she is deserving of this recognition.”
Demapan supported Camacho’s substitute version saying, “It’s important that we support the renomination of Judge Manglona.”
Governor Torres last month said he had already instructed his legal counsel to draft a letter expressing support for the judge’s renomination.
In 2011, Judge Manglona became the first person from the CNMI to be appointed as a federal judge, and the first female and first Chamorro judge of the District Court for the NMI.
A former CNMI assistant attorney general, Judge Manglona was an associate judge of the CNMI Superior Court for eight years when President Barack Obama, upon the recommendation of Congressman Kilili, nominated her to serve as federal judge.
She obtained her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, and her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1996.
The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination in July 2011, and her term will expire this July.
The House of Representatives holds a session on Friday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
Ramona V. Manglona
