TO AVOID TENO VETO House defers changes to state funeral law

To avoid a possible veto by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, the House of Representatives yesterday reassessed its action on proposed amendment to the state funeral law after the executive branch questioned some of its provisions.

Rep. Thomas B. Pangelinan, sponsor of HB 12-154, said during the session that senators included new provisions to his original proposal which prompted the governor’s advisers to defer signing it into law.

These provisions would include former mayors and legislators who could be eligible to receive state funeral, except only those who have been convicted felon and have not been pardoned by the CNMI governor.

Under the House version, such honors shall be held, aside from high-ranking officials of the government and fire and police officers killed in the line of duty, to others deemed appropriate by the governor.

HB 12-154, which has been pending in the Governor’s Office since June, followed signing of Public Law 11-92 which limits granting of state funeral to specific individuals.

It also sets the guidelines and procedures to enhance their significance, while establishing the spending limit by the government at $3,000 for each ceremony, as well as the required protocol, like the number of gun salute to be given.

The present policy grants state funerals to present and former governors and lieutenant governors, current mayors and members of the Legislature and resident representative to the
United States as well as judges and justices.
Police and fire officers are also included in the category if they are killed in the line of duty.

But Mr. Tenorio, citing the strict set of rules, had asked the Legislature to amend the new law to include others who might not fall under these categories, but who have served the island “in a truly extraordinary way.”

While that law was prompted by concerns that state funerals had become de rigueur even for unlikely individuals in the community, he maintained the criteria should be widened so as not to exclude other personalities who must be honored with a public ceremony.

The proposed amendment was prompted by the death of retired Marine Corporal Cristino S. Dela Cruz last March a few days after he was awarded the Purple Heart medal for heroism during World War II.

He was not given a state funeral because he did not fall under the category set forth in the law, although his family lamented that he deserved such an honor.

With the twin deaths of former Rep. Pedro Nakatsukasa and Jesuit priest Rev. Gary J. Bradley, many in the community felt that they should be honored with state funeral because of their contributions to the CNMI.