Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) slammed Guam Sen. James Espaldon on Facebook yesterday, saying in a social media post that the senator\u2019s failure to apologize to the CNMI after being entangled in a multi-million scandal at the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is both \u201carrogant and disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Propst, who had filed an ethics complaint against Espaldon in late 2017 for his role in a failed CUC procurement, said: \u201cLet me say that it is the people of the CNMI who are owed an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CNMI lawmaker had filed the complaint against Espaldon with the Guam Legislature after finding out that Espaldon was acting as a negotiator for General Pacific Services Marianas, which had a bid for a CUC engine.<\/p>\n
The president of GPSM, Amelia Toelkes, is the wife of Robert Toelkes, who was involved with a previous business pitch to the CNMI government on a $160-million reverse osmosis system that did not come to fruition.<\/p>\n
It was also learned that GPSM vice president Phil Roberto was related to then-CUC board chair Adelina Roberto. Former CUC board member Albert Taitano also acted as an agent of GPSM. <\/p>\n
Once these issues came to light, negotiations between GPSM and the CUC board were immediately halted.<\/p>\n
Propst\u2019s ethics complaint against Espaldon in the Guam Legislature later resulted in a resolution that, according to Propst, effectively censures Espaldon.<\/p>\n
During yesterday\u2019s Guam Legislature session, Propst related that Espaldon reportedly chose a closed-door committee hearing rather than one that was open to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo people deserve to know? Perhaps. But that is not the rules,\u201d Espaldon reportedly said verbatim, according to Propst.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, Sen. Espaldon wanted to kill this resolution and his censure because of a technicality, and apparently, so did a few of his colleagues,\u201d added Propst.<\/p>\n
Espaldon reportedly pointed out in the session in Guam that Propst\u2019s claims were mere allegations and lacked evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we had some guy file a complaint against me from Saipan, but\u2026they were just allegations. And when it came down to the hearing, did he present any evidence? No,\u201d Espaldon reportedly said, according to Propst\u2019s post.<\/p>\n
In response, Propst said he was a \u201crepresentative and a public servant of the people of the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I fought against a fraudulent $11-million power plant \u2018emergency purchase\u2019 in which Sen. Espaldon was the \u2018chief negotiator.\u2019 This power plant emergency purchase scheme eventually led to the firing of the CUC board by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres,\u201d he said, adding that he personally discovered the fraudulent claims of GPSM, the company Espaldon represented.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWhile Sen. Espaldon threatened his colleagues with \u2018collateral damage\u2019 if this resolution goes through and demands an apology from his colleagues, let me say that it is the people of the CNMI who are owed an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) slammed Guam Sen. James Espaldon on Facebook yesterday, saying in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,49,16157,2613],"class_list":["post-268626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-cuc","tag-gpsm","tag-guam-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268626","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}