Amendment to state funeral law eyed
Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes vowed to press passage of an amendment to the state funeral law to allow the government to give formal honors to individuals in the community who are otherwise not qualified under the present criteria.
HB 12-154 cleared the lower house last March, but has yet been acted by the Senate despite the deaths of three prominent members over the past few months who were not honored a state funeral due to the restrictions of the existing law.
Senators are set to hold session today where Mr. Reyes said he will move to include that House amendment to the agenda for voting.
The measure 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.
His relatives lamented that he was not given a state funeral, although Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio had expressed support for such honors. Mr. Dela Cruz was buried with military service.
Under House Bill 12-154, state funerals 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.
The proposal came seven months after he signed Public Law 11-92 which limits granting of this honor to these specific individuals.
It also sets the guidelines and procedures in order 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.
Under that policy, public officials who must be honored by a state funeral range from 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 the governor, 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, Mr. Tenorio maintained the criteria should be widened so as not to exclude other personalities who must be honored with a public ceremony.
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.
According to Mr. Reyes, the proposed honors may be short of state funeral, but with the same kind of attention and respect given to an individual who has given so much to the community.
“Money is not really the factor here,” he told reporters in an interview. “But if former members of the Legislature and heroes like Mr. Dela Cruz or a policeman who died in action and other equally heroic fetes, they [must] be given the recognition without any problems.”
The government may also hold a state funeral without spending public funds by extending formalities “to demonstrate that we acknowledge their contribution and that we are happy to show our appreciation.”
Both Mr. Nakatsukasa and Fr. Bradley, who were entombed last Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, were given separate resolutions adopted earlier this week by the House to recognize their achievements.
