Court subpoenas Babauta, Brown, others

The Superior Court subpoenaed yesterday several government officials, including Gov. Juan N. Babauta and attorney general Pamela Brown, to produce documents and testify in court in connection with the lawsuit that seeks to block the drawdown of some $3.45 million in land compensation claim by the Malite estate against the government.

The court compelled the officials to appear in the courtroom of Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama on Thursday, Dec. 23—the same day when the temporary restraining order that froze the release of compensation claim expires.

Lizama denied yesterday the request of Brown’s attorneys to extend the effectivity of the TRO.

“The cause cited by the government—the coming holidays—is insufficient to justify an extension,” Lizama ruled.

Without a valid TRO or permanent injunction, nothing forbids the Commonwealth Development Authority from releasing the $3.45 million drawdown from the government’s Land Compensation Fund.

The judge tasked Brown’s attorneys, led by assistant attorney general Benjamin Sachs, to submit a request for preliminary injunction until the closing of government hours yesterday. Lizama said that the request would be heard by the court also on Thursday if it is timely filed.

Attorneys for the MPLA, its board and acting commissioner initiated yesterday the issuance of subpoenas to various government officials, including the governor. The court also ordered the officials to produce pertinent documents that are in their possession, custody or control.

Other officials asked to appear in court included Sachs, assistant attorney general Daniel L. Furrh, CDA board chair Sixto K. Igisomar and executive director Maria Lourdes S. Ada, and Finance Secretary Fermin M. Atalig.

“Failure by any person without adequate excuse to obey a subpoena served upon that person shall be ground for the issuance of a bench warrant by the court, and may additionally be deemed a contempt of court,” the subpoenas state.

Brown had filed the lawsuit to stop the release of the $3.45 million compensation, citing a “strong appearance of ethical impropriety and conflicts of interest.”

Defendants in the suit include the Marianas Public Lands Authority; its acting commissioner Edward Deleon Guerrero and its board of directors, including chair Ana Demapan-Castro and members Nicolas Nekai, Felix Sasamoto, Manny Villagomez, and Benita Atalig-Manglona; the CDA; and Malite estate administrator Jesus Tudela.

Brown initiated the suit on behalf of the CNMI government after the MPLA, reportedly with the consent of the CDA, announced that they would go ahead with the release of the land compensation to the Malite estate on Dec. 6 despite her objections. Brown questioned the amount of land compensation and its release, contending that the claim was spurious.

The MPLA board approved the land compensation claim, a matter that was already decided by the Trust Territory court in 1978. That court had computed the compensation for the condemnation of a parcel of land, which now forms part of Saipan’s Marianas High School, at $3,682. The Commonwealth government obtained title to the land as a result of the condemnation.

The Malite estate claims, though, that they did not get a cent of the $3,682 valuation.

Even if that is true, Brown argued that the amount of $3.45 million does not conform to valuation provisions of the law. Her lawyer, Sachs, explained that valuation of condemned land should be determined at the time of the taking of the property by the Commonwealth government.

Sachs said the lawyer of the estate’s administrator, Antonio Atalig, presented an appraisal report that used Aug. 30, 1991 as the time of the land taking, which actually occurred sometime in 1968. The appraisal pegged the market value of the property at $500 per square meter.

Despite the recommendation of MPLA attorney Alan Lane to have the appraisal report further investigated, MPLA board chair Demapan-Castro allegedly urged the board to expedite the approval of the Malite estate’s land compensation claim on Aug. 13, 2004. The board acted favorably on this. The Malite estate was represented by Atalig, brother of MPLA board member Benita Atalig-Manglona.

MPLA’s acting commissioner then proceeded to make a requisition for the land compensation claim, asking the CDA to release the money. The CDA had initially held off from releasing the money when the AGO objected but the agency reportedly consented later to the fund’s release.

Sachs also said there are conflicts of interest between the Malite heirs’ lawyers and some MPLA board members, which taint the transaction. He said MPLA legal counsel Raymond Quichocho shares an office with Atalig’s brother Pedro, whose office manager, Juan Demapan, is brother of the MPLA chair.

The lawsuit sparked the filing of a separate action by former Senate President Juan S. Demapan, who asked the court to declare that Brown is holding the position of attorney general unlawfully. In that case, Malite estate attorney Pedro Atalig, a former Supreme Court justice, represents Demapan.

Atalig argued that Brown has no authority to bring the Malite estate’s claim to court, questioning the validity of her confirmation as attorney general. He said the Trust Territory government, through a 1978 court order that awarded only some $3,682 to the Malite estate for the condemnation of a 6,900-sqm land, treated the Malite heirs “like animals.”

Atalig also said that, in preventing the release of the $3.45 million compensation to the Malite heirs, the CNMI government continues the unfair treatment accorded the heirs by the TT government.

He said Brown caused the filing of the suit despite the instruction of the governor to release the money to the Malite estate, noting that the passage of several pieces of legislation—Public Laws 13-17, 13-25, and 13-37—had the intent to compensate persons affected by the Trust Territory government’s taking of private property based on eminent domain.

“The statutes were created to bring a close to these outstanding land disputes between the government and private persons victimized by the government’s taking of their private lands without just compensation,” Atalig said.