By Emmanuel T. Erediano
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
SENATE President Karl King-Nabors on Tuesday requested that Gov. David M. Apatang provide the Senate with the legal basis for his decision to rescind Lt. Gov. Dennis James Mendiola’s termination of Department of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony I. Macaranas earlier this year.
Mendiola, acting in the capacity of governor, terminated Macaranas on Feb. 23, 2026, citing a public law on executive power that states: “Unless otherwise provided by law, any person appointed to any board, agency, commission, or position by the Governor shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor and may be removed by the Governor with or without cause.”
He designated DPS Director of Police Aniceto T. Ogumoro as acting DPS commissioner.
Eight days later, on March 2, 2026, a formal complaint alleging unprofessional and inappropriate conduct by Macaranas was filed with the Civil Service Commission.
Effective March 5, 2026, Apatang reinstated Macaranas.
In his letter, King-Nabors noted that he and Apatang met on May 26, 2026, and that he appreciated the governor’s willingness to discuss the matter directly. The two were also scheduled to meet with Attorney General Edward Manibusan on May 29, 2026, but the meeting did not take place because, according to the Senate president, the attorney general was unavailable.
In his letter to the governor on Tuesday, King-Nabors stressed the importance of the issue to both the executive branch and the Legislature. Because the matter concerns the Senate’s constitutional advice-and-consent role, he said it was appropriate to formally outline the Senate’s position while requesting the legal basis for the administration’s stance.
King-Nabors emphasized that his request for the legal basis supporting Macaranas’ reinstatement “is not directed” at the DPS chief personally.
“The question is institutional. It concerns whether the executive branch may return a person to an advice-and-consent office after a vacancy without submitting that appointment to the Senate. It also concerns whether official acts taken by a constitutionally designated acting governor are legally effective when issued,” the Senate president said.
King-Nabors cited Article III, Section 8(a) of the NMI Constitution, stating that the Senate’s position is that Mendiola’s termination of Macaranas was legally effective. The constitutional provision states that when the governor is physically absent from the Commonwealth, the lieutenant governor “shall be acting governor.”
He said that once Macaranas was removed, the DPS commissioner position became vacant, and the contemporaneous designation of another official as acting commissioner further supports the Senate’s position that the termination was treated as effective when issued.
The Senate president told the governor that the letter rescinding Mendiola’s termination order “did not necessarily erase the legal consequences of a completed removal from an advice-and-consent office.”
“The executive branch may characterize the action as a rescission or reinstatement, but the legal effect controls. If Commissioner Macaranas was removed and then returned to the office, his return was, at minimum, an appointment or assumption of office after a vacancy,” King-Nabors said.
That conclusion, he said, is important because the law requires appointments to advice-and-consent positions to be submitted to the appropriate presiding officer of the Senate within 30 days after the person is appointed or assumes the position, even in an acting capacity, when the position becomes vacant for any reason.
If the appointment is not submitted within that period, King-Nabors said, the law provides that the appointment automatically terminates, the position becomes vacant, and the person may not be reappointed to the same position.
Noting that more than 30 days have passed since Macaranas returned as DPS commissioner and that no new appointment has been submitted to the Senate, the Senate president expressed concern that 1 CMC § 2902 “now treats the attempted appointment or assumption of office as terminated, the position as vacant, and Commissioner Macaranas as ineligible for reappointment to the same position.”
He also expressed concern about the broader institutional implications of the rescission. If a later rescission can retroactively erase an official act taken by the acting governor, he said, agencies, employees, contractors, regulated parties, and the public may not know whether executive branch orders issued during the governor’s absence are immediately reliable.
“That uncertainty is difficult to reconcile with Article III, Section 8(a), which exists to ensure continuity of executive authority when the governor is physically absent from the Commonwealth,” King-Nabors said.
The Senate president also respectfully requested that the administration identify the legal authority supporting the governor’s position. Alternatively, if the administration recognizes that the position became vacant, he requested that the executive branch proceed in accordance with 1 CMC §§ 2901 and 2902, also known as Public Law 1-8, which govern executive appointments.
If the issue cannot be resolved through interbranch communication, King-Nabors said the appropriate course would be for both branches to jointly certify the legal questions to the Supreme Court. Such a move, he said, would allow the executive branch and the Senate to obtain a definitive ruling on the legal effect of the acting governor’s termination order, the subsequent rescission, and the expired 30-day period for submitting a reappointment to the Senate.
Emmanuel “Arnold” Erediano has a bachelor of science degree in Journalism. He started his career as police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
