Flashback – Dec. 14, 1999-2001

Manglona gets 24 months for bribery[/B]

Federal Court Judge Alex Munson yesterday sentenced former Tinian Sen. Herman Manglona to 24 months imprisonment after he was found guilty of accepting bribery and attempting to influence a grand jury.

Mr. Manglona will serve the sentence concurrently for each count. The court also ordered him to pay $15,000 to the Commonwealth, the amount which he raked in during the time he was accepting bribe money from Sablan Construction Ltd., Inc. when he was mayor of Tinian.

The Northern Marianas government will not cave in to pressure to restrict hiring of foreign workers for jobs on the island as key lawmakers brushed aside yesterday the latest attempt by Washington to take away local control of immigration, minimum wage and customs.

But Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio declined making official statement on the proposal offered by President Clinton’s special emissary to the 902 talks, Edward B. Cohen, that will be presented by the White House to U.S. Congress next month.

This is the same proposal laid out during the resumption of the 902 consultation meeting held on Saipan early this year between Mr. Cohen and members of the CNMI panel headed by Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan, according to legislators.

Criminal charges mulled against ex-Rota officials[/B]

The CNMI Attorney General is exploring the possibility of filing charges against former officials of the Rota Mayor’s Office, after findings by an investigation by the Office of the Public Auditor revealed they used coercive actions against their employees.

In a letter to the OPA, Attorney General Herbert Soll said his office anticipates charging the individuals involved with multiple counts of theft, bribery, political coercion, conspiracy, solicitation and misconduct in public office.
[B] Sablan leads public auditor nominees[/B]

A new Public Auditor is likely to be named this week by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio before outgoing OPA chief Leo L. LaMotte leaves the post he held for over six years.

Mike S. Sablan, the governor’s special advisor for finance and budget, is a shoo-in among the list of people under consideration to head the Office of Public Auditor.

Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations chair Sen. Joaquin G. Adriano yesterday backed Sablan as a “good and qualified” replacement for LaMotte.

Longer gloomy days ahead [/B]

The recession in Japan is nothing new and will have a minimal impact on the CNMI economy. However, the Commonwealth’s economic performance will continue at the same level as that after the Sept. 11 attacks—at least probably until summer next year.

This was the prognosis of Bank of Hawaii International Economist Dr. Wali M. Osman, even as he stressed that there are, at present, no immediate prospect of improvement in the Japanese economy.

In an interview yesterday morning, Osman said the current recession in the Japanese economy has been going on for 10 years now and the Japanese people have become used to it to a degree that they no longer find it alarming.

With a few months left before the Puerto Rico dump reaches maximum capacity, the US Environmental Protection Agency is pressing for the immediate closure of the site due to leachate that pollutes the CNMI’s waters.

EPA waste engineer Ramon Mendoza said that uncontrolled leachate is flowing into the waters of the CNMI and “the only way that we can limit that and stop that is to close the dump and put a cover over it.”