SENATE President Jude U. Hofschneider on Wednesday officially discharged the Special Committee on the Impeachment Hearing and referred the articles of impeachment, or House Resolution 22-14, to the full Senate.
The time and date of the hearing had yet to be announced.
Passed by the Democratic-Independent-led House of Representatives on Jan. 12, 2022, H.R. 22-14 accuses Republican Gov. Ralph DLG Torres of commission of felonies, corruption, and neglect of duty. He has denied the allegations.
According to the CNMI Constitution, “The House of Representatives may initiate impeachment proceedings by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members and the Senate may convict after hearing by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members.”
The Senate has nine members.
Hofschneider said he will assume the role of the presiding hearing officer for the impeachment proceedings as he thanked the special committee chair, Sen. Karl King-Nabors, and committee members for their “time and hard work regarding this matter.”
Hofschneider said, “It is in the best interest of the Senate to conduct a hearing on the articles of impeachment set forth in House Resolution 22-14 by the full Senate.”
Unfortunate
During a session on Wednesday, minority bloc Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero said it is “unfortunate that this Senate body is caught in an ex parte tangled mess of its own impeachment rules, adopted by the impeachment joint committee on February 25, 2022 and subsequently passed on March 3, 2022 with three voting ‘no.’ ”
Those who voted no were Deleon Guerrero, a Democrat, and Rota independent Sens. Paul A. Manglona and Teresita A. Santos.
The six other senators are Republicans.
According to Deleon Guerrero, “The mess did not stop but instead went on with the violations under Impeachment Rule 18, Attendance, Decorum, Ex Parte Communication. One need not go far by analyzing the timestamps on Impeachment Document 22-16 – Senate Communication 22-123 – and Impeachment Document 22-19 addressed to the Impeached Official.”
She said “Impeachment Rule 18 has, in my opinion, been violated and must be dealt with…in the spirit and intent of P.L. 8-11, the Government Ethics Code Act of 1992 as amended by P.L. 8-28 which Acting Governor Benjamin T. Manglona signed…into law on January 22, 1993.”
Deleon Guerrero said, “The people of the Commonwealth deserve absolute respect and decorum from its Senate members, us, who are elected to represent the people, in their best interests, not our personal or aligned interests that are of no benefit to the people of our Commonwealth.”
She said, “Despite what was reported…that no amendments were offered, the truth is that had the documented amendments with judicious intent been accepted as shown in S.J.R. 22-20 offered by myself and Sen. Paul Manglona on the March 3, 2022 Senate Session, this mess could have well been avoided.”
Senate President Hofschneider on Tuesday said the Senate impeachment trial of the governor will proceed with or without a House prosecutor.
The House leadership, for their part, said the Senate impeachment rules are unconstitutional.
