Fitial back on Saipan

Some 14 months since resigning and leaving the CNMI, former governor Benigno R. Fitial came back to Saipan on Saturday morning, four days before his April 30 court appearance to face the charges filed against him.
The CNMI Division of Customs, the Commonwealth Ports Authority and other sources separately confirmed with Saipan Tribune within an hour or so of the former governor’s arrival at the Saipan International Airport around 8am aboard a Cape Air flight on Saturday. Fitial flew in from the Philippines via Guam.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in an interview late Saturday morning, said it’s good that Fitial came back to voluntarily appear in court. He said the public should let the judicial process “take its course.”

Inos also wishes Fitial good health. The two have known each other since they were young.

“…The key is for him to be here, and he went through that, he’s here,” Inos said in an interview at the opening ceremonies of the 33rd Annual Flame Tree Arts Festival in Susupe on Saturday morning.

Fitial is facing seven criminal charges in connection with the alleged shielding of former attorney general Edward T. Buckingham from being served with penal summons in August 2012. The charges were filed in March 2013. On Feb. 19 this year, Buckingham was found guilty of all public corruption charges except one and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, all suspended.

Except for Fitial, other defendants in the case had had their court appearances. April 30 will be Fitial’s initial court appearance.

Customs Director Joe Mafnas said that customs personnel at the airport were aware that the arrest warrant against Fitial had already been quashed so there was no reason for him to be held at the airport.

“The former governor was not held at the airport. He was accorded respect as a former governor and just like any other passenger. There was nothing unusual when he arrived at the airport,” Mafnas told Saipan Tribune.

He said Customs, knowing that Fitial’s April 30 voluntary appearance in Superior Court was nearing, checked again with the Office of the Public Auditor on Thursday last week whether the arrest warrant was indeed quashed and confirmed once again that it was quashed.

CPA executive director MaryAnn Lizama separately said “Customs came by Central and asked if the arrest warrant was active.”

“We called DPS [Department of Public Safety] and we’re advised that it was quashed so there was no reason to hold him,” she said.

Inos said a protocol was established by the Office of the Attorney General on matters concerning arrest warrants.

“When the warrant was quashed, then all the affected bodies should have been notified,” he said.

Since his arrival on Saturday, Fitial has reportedly been visited by relatives and friends at his residence in Gualo Rai and has also been meeting with them in their homes.

Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan), chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations, said yesterday Fitial did the right thing by coming back voluntarily.

“He is innocent until proven guilty and he should be given due process. We should all allow the justice system to take its course,” said Leon Guerrero, a former police officer.

Fitial resigned on Feb. 20, 2013, days after the House of Representatives impeached him on charges of corruption, felony, and neglect of duty. He resigned as governor a few days before the start of his impeachment trial at the Senate.

Fitial left the CNMI on Feb. 21, 2013.

About a year later or on March 17, 2014, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman directed Fitial to voluntarily appear in Superior Court on April 30, 2014, at 1:30pm.

Wiseman said that if the former governor fails to appear at the April 30 hearing due to his ongoing medical treatment, he will be required to justify any absences on that date.

Fitial, in an earlier declaration he filed through his counsel, Stephen Nutting, said he wants to return to the CNMI as he has no desire to become a fugitive.

When Fitial resigned, his then lieutenant governor, Inos, automatically became the governor. Then Senate president Jude U. Hofschneider became the lieutenant governor under the rules of succession.

Inos is now running for governor in the November 2014 race, with Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) as his running mate under the Republican Party.

When asked whether Fitial could seek any office in the November elections, Inos said the former governor can as Fitial has not been convicted of anything.

But when asked whether he thinks Fitial will run for governor again, Inos said he doesn’t think so.

“I don’t see governor Fitial throwing his hat in the ring to run for public office. I’m sure his first order of business is to try to get this situation behind him…” Inos said, adding that Fitial also has to take care of his health.

Fitial, according to Nutting, has a neurological condition. Fitial stayed in the Philippines, his wife Josie’s home country where he had also been seeking medical treatment.