TJ Manglona
REPRESENTATIVE Thomas John Manglona, a former Republican who won a second term as an independent, has joined the House leadership.
Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, during the organizational session on Monday, appointed Manglona as chair of the House Commerce Committee, which is now separate from the Tourism Committee. Rep. Julie Marie Ogo of Rota will chair the latter.
In an interview, Manglona, who represents Precinct 5, said he has a good relationship with all his colleagues in the minority and the majority. He said he was honored that the independent-led House majority had considered him for a committee chairmanship.
He said he wanted to chair the Commerce Committee because of his “passion to help the CNMI’s business community.”
“It is something that I do,” he added. “I’ve always wanted to assist businesses, especially in this dire economic situation. A lot of businesses are shutting down.”
Manglona said he will continue to have a good working relationship with members of the minority, referring to House Republican Reps. Patrick San Nicolas of Tinian and Roy Ada of Precinct 1.
In a separate interview, Villagomez said he appointed Manglona to a committee chairmanship to “diversify” the leadership.
He added that Manglona also has a background in running a business. “I just thought it’s good to have a fresh mind to chair that committee,” Villagomez said.
The speaker said when he recommended Manglona to chair the committee to the other members of the leadership, “they were all good with it.” There was nothing political about the decision, he added.
“He showed interest, [and asked] my permission, of course, if he could get a chairmanship, so why not? It’s something that he was just hoping that he could [do] and it was something I took into consideration and I shared it with rest of the leadership,” Villagomez said.
Other committee chairs
The speaker also made the following committee appointments:
John Paul Sablan, Ways and Means Committee chair; Joel Camacho, Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee chair; Vincent S. Aldan, Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee chair; Roman Benavente, Education Committee chair; Angelo Camacho, Natural Resources Committee chair; Denita Yangetmai, Cannabis Committee chair; Malcolm Omar, Health and Welfare Committee chair; Blas Jonathan Attao, Federal and Foreign Relations Committee chair; and Ralph N. Yumul, Gaming Committee chair.
The other members of the 24th House are Vice Speaker Diego Vincent F. Camacho, House Floor Leader Marissa Flores, Reps. Joseph Flores, Elias Rangamar, Raymond U. Palacios and Daniel I. Aquino.
