Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, said if the people will elect an AG, they should also choose a public auditor.
He also expressed some concerns about Rep. Francisco S. Dela Cruz’s proposal for an elected AG or House Legislative Initiative 17-2.
He said the election of AG does not have to be held in the 2016 elections as H.L.I 17-2 proposes.
He said once both houses pass it, the proposed constitutional amendment should be on the ballot next year.
“Why do we have to wait for the midterm elections in 2016? We will end up having no attorney general until that year. So we should strike out the language ‘midterm election’ from the initiative,” he said.
Once passed by the three-fourths of the members of both houses, a legislative initiative must be approved by voters to be ratified. It doesn’t need the governor’s approval.
Dela Cruz, R-Saipan, said he has no problems with Tenorio’s suggestion.
“The bottom-line right now is to try and pass this in both houses so that the people would have a voice as to whether they want an elected AG or not,” he said.
Tenorio said the elected AG’s salary should not be $80,000 a year considering the importance of the position.
“I want to pay an elected AG $130,000,” he added.
Dela Cruz originally proposed $150,000 but the Senate reduced this to $80,000.
He said the Legislature can always change the salary later.
The Senate finds $150,000 too high since the governor only gets $80,000 a year.
Tenorio, a former governor, said an elected AG should provide legal advice to the governor as originally proposed by Dela Cruz.
But the Senate struck out this language. Under the current draft, the AG will give legal advice to executive departments, public corporations and autonomous agencies.
Tenorio asked, “So who will advise the governor?”
The elected AG, he said, should advise the governor. In case they don’t agree on an issue, that is the time the governor can consult with his own legal counsel.
Dela Cruz said the elected AG “should be independent of the executive branch, but still he needs to represent it.”
An elected AG will not be in the position to advise the governor who can hire his own legal counsel anyway, Dela Cruz said.
“The key word here is independent of the executive branch,” he added.
