{"id":238606,"date":"2016-10-18T06:06:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=238606"},"modified":"2016-10-18T06:06:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T20:06:28","slug":"torres-oag-endorses-anti-domestic-violence-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-oag-endorses-anti-domestic-violence-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres, OAG endorses anti-domestic violence bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.<\/a>
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, seated second right, and Rep. Antonio P. Sablan (Ind-Saipan) listen as Attorney General Edward Manibusan delivers his speech during last Friday\u2019s presentation of a proposed bill against domestic violence to members of the Legislature at the Governor\u2019s Office conference room. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and the Office of the Attorney General presented to the Legislature their proposal to amend the CNMI\u2019s domestic violence laws as part of efforts to combat and control this problem in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Edward Manibusan and his staff, led by assistant attorney general Michael Witry, who drafted the bill, joined Torres in presenting to the Legislature\u2014led by Senate President Francisco M. Borja (Ind-Saipan) and House majority leader Rep. George N. Camacho (R-Saipan)\u2014their proposed bill.<\/p>\n

Torres said the OAG\u2019s proposed bill was timely after he recently signed a proclamation declaring October as the 22nd Domestic Violence Awareness Month. \u201cIt\u2019s good that the administration, the AG, and the Legislature are united when it comes to this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important for us, with October being Domestic Violence and Sexual Awareness Month, to stiffen laws against all those perpetrators and predators. We must always treat women with dignity, love, and respect,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n

He added the draft bill was a collaboration of Manibusan, Witry, and the entire OAG. \u201cWe [administration and OAG] are working with a couple of bills that would address issues that we\u2019ve been having regarding domestic violence laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the community to know the administration is serious in cracking down with this kind of behavior. We want to promote this kind of legislation and I encourage the Legislature to act on it as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manibusan said the proposed bill is part of recognizing their efforts against domestic violence. \u201cWe are presenting a proposal in the area of domestic violence and we must promote awareness with this kind of problem in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI commend the OAG\u2019s staff, from those who worked behind the scenes to those who prosecute the offenders and protect the victims. It is a great deal of work to be done to prevent domestic violence, abuse, and sexual assault but we must work as a team to combat this growing problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witry said the bill has three components, first of which is classifying the offense of strangulation as a felony. \u201cBecause strangulation is a major warning sign that the abuser has the potential to kill their victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMajority of states have laws that have strangulation as a felony, that would give you up to seven years in prison. Research showed that victims of strangulation have a 750 percent chance of being killed by their abuser,\u201d said Witry.<\/p>\n

The proposed bill would also modernize the CNMI\u2019s stalking laws where it aims to protect people from those that are not covered by the current laws. Lastly, the bill presents a set of rules that applies to domestic violence cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and the Office of the Attorney General presented to the Legislature…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":238607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,65,13457,86],"class_list":["post-238606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-house","tag-michael-witry","tag-oag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}