AGO asked to draft bill to legalize Liberation Day fundraising events

Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes yesterday prodded the Attorney General’s Office to recommend actions that the Legislature could take to correct what it perceived as illegal fundraising activities during the annual Liberation Day celebration.

The call came in the wake of growing dispute over the legality of this year’s activities, including the month-long fundraising conducted by the Liberation Day Queen search as well as gambling, vending and other commercial operations at the carnival grounds.

Government lawyers have “better things to do than to be following this Liberation Day fundraising,” Reyes said in an interview.

“It’s an annual event here, a cultural and traditional practice and if there’s a law that makes this illegal, the appropriate thing to do is to bring this to our attention and let’s correct the problem,” he added.

Assistant Attorney General Alvin A. Horne earlier has ruled that the income-generating function of the Liberation Day Festival Committee Festival is not mandated under the Saipan Municipal Code, nor it sanctions a 30-day event.

The AGO has also expressed concern on what it said appears to be a highly irregular, potentially unlawful and repetitive course of conduct by the committee and the Saipan Mayor’s Office.

Horne noted that there has been no real coordination with prior committees and no continuity of documentation about how things were done in the past which only leads to a repetition of problems.

But Reyes said if the existing law forbids organizers of the July 4th activities to raise money, the Legislature or the local delegation is willing to correct this loophole.

“I’m sure it’s never our intention to prevent the committee from doing any fundraising,” he explained, adding AGO should offer concrete step that legislators must take to legalize these activities.

“If there should be a law… to allow this and to continue the traditional and the cultural event surrounding the Liberation Day festivities, then we would appreciate it very much if they would draft an amendment to the legislation.”

Reyes criticized the AGO for by-passing the lawmaking body when it issued its legal opinion only to Sonya P. Pangelinan, chair of the 1999 Liberation Day Committee, and a copy was not forwarded to members of the Saipan delegation.

“I don’t mean disrespect to the Attorney General, but I think that they understand the mentality of the members of the Legislature here that this is something that we support,” the senator pointed out.

“Instead of writing a letter to (Pangelinan), it would take them less time to draft a letter informing us that this is perhaps an oversight on our part. We were probably unaware that this would be interpreted to mean that they would not be allowed to do fundraising,” Reyes said.