Jorgensen: Mendiola, Reyes are ‘lapdogs’
Lawyer Bruce Lee Jorgensen downplayed yesterday Sen. Dennis James C. Mendiola’s (R-Rota) opposition to his appointment as a member of the Commonwealth Ports Authority board representing Rota, describing it as “rehashed old news” that were reported and dispelled more than a month ago, a repetition of personal criticisms, the senator’s own ignorance and disregard for acts, and “propensity for anti-white racism.”
“This is unbecoming a CNMI senator, particularly one so wet behind the ears as is Dennis, who is supposed to fairly and equally treat all of his Rota constituents, including those of us who seek to alter his self-interested political/familial status quo to alleviate Rota’s economic hardships and who, like me, happen to possess white skin pigmentation,” said Jorgensen in response to Saipan Tribune’s request for comments about Mendiola’s recent statements opposing the lawyer’s nomination.
Citing a petition with 90 signatures and five letters from Rota residents who strongly oppose Jorgensen’s appointment, Mendiola requested the Senate Executive Appointments and Government Investigations Committee to thoroughly examine the concerns raised in the petition.
“Prioritizing the well-being and goals of the community of Rota is of the utmost importance when it comes to the governance of the [CPA],” Mendiola told committee chair Sen. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) in his July 21, 2023 letter.
The EAGI Committee held a confirmation hearing on Jorgensen’s appointment last July 26. The Senate has yet to confirm the appointment.
Jorgensen described Mendiola’s letter as “a dubious excuse,” as Mendiola had full and firsthand opportunity to raise before the Senate EAGI committee any objections he may have to his nomination. Instead, he said, Mendiola forfeited that right, and his fiduciary commitments to Rota community, by abruptly resigning as Rota’s representative on the Senate’s EAGI and Judiciary, Government and Law Committees—just days before the EAGI Committee heard and considered testimony on Jorgensen’s nomination.
“And in so doing, Dennis woefully reneged on his utmost fiduciary duties to Rota constituents in favor of his personal penchant to unilaterally quit, whine, pout, and then spew and spout inanities,” the lawyer said.
Jorgensen said the reality is that Mendiola and CPA director Pete Reyes, who also strongly opposes Jorgensen’s nomination, are “lapdogs doing the bidding for their longstanding Rota cronies, who are principally if not entirely responsible for Rota’s fiscal demise and absurdly exorbitant commodities prices, have derived millions in profits from the predatory pricing they inflict on Rota residents, and therefore will do whatever they can get away with to prevent any shift in the status quo.”
He said the two know that if he is confirmed, this status quo will be altered immediately, comprehensively, and in a manner ensuring an end to CPA decisions, agreements, “and seemingly collusive realities, which for decades have irreparably harmed Rota’s importers, grocers, farmers, tradesmen, and families.”
Jorgensen said a petition signed by a handful of “familia, sycophants, lackeys, and those beholden themselves or for family members desperate to maintain Rota government employ, is hardly persuasive.”
Jorgensen said Mendiola should have read a six-page letter detailing Rota issues and transmitted May 3, 2023, to CPA officials by the Senate Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications; or the 19-page questionnaire Jorgensen said he prepared, compiled over the past eight months on extensive review of CPA-Rota activities and issues. Yet 99 days since CPA received that letter, there has been no written response, he added.
Jorgensen said he remains passionate about serving as a CPA board member.
Bruce Lee Jorgensen
Dennis James Mendiola
Pete Reyes
