Felipe Atalig
FORMER Department of Public Works Public Information Officer Felipe Q. Atalig said he wants to see justice while he is still alive.
Atalig said he was offered $80,000 to settle the dispute between him and the department, but he said he should be paid the whole amount due to him.
A former member of the Marianas District Legislature and the Congress of Micronesia, and a delegate to the NMI’s first constitutional convention in 1976, Atalig was terminated as PIO by then-DPW Secretary James Ada in March 2018 for alleged sexual harassment. Atalig is claiming administrative leave pay for six years, which now amounts to $352,000.
In December 2023, Associate Judge Wesley Bogdan, who presided over Atalig’s case, retired.
On April 9, 2024, Atalig asked the Superior Court to hold a status conference on his case. “The reason I am requesting again for a status conference [is] because of my health condition that is deteriorating day by day,” Atalig said.
On Tuesday last week, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho issued an order of recusal from the case. DPW-Technical Services Director Anthony Camacho, who is included in Atalig’s complaint, is the judge’s younger brother.
On Jan. 16, 2024, an internal medicine physician, Dr. John Doyle III of MMC & Pacific Lab LLC, issued a certification stating that Atalig “is under care for numerous medical issues including hypertension, diabetes, peripheral arterial disease and prostate cancer at this time. His health is declining.”
In an interview on Friday, Atalig, who will be 84 years old on Oct. 22, said he is grateful to DPW Secretary Ray N. Yumul for finally making a settlement offer.
Atalig said he appreciates it very much, adding that it “brings hope and tranquility and room for settlement for a new beginning.”
However, he said, “imagine for six years, I have been denied my administrative leave.”
But as a gesture of gratitude to Yumul, he said will accept the $80,000 provided that DPW will pay him the balance of $272,256 in the next fiscal year.
Atalig has denied DPW’s allegation of sexual harassment, saying that when he put his hand into a male engineer’s pocket he was just demonstrating a point during an argument.
No charges have been filed against Atalig.
