Within hours of Edward Taylor Buckingham III\u2019s conviction and sentencing related to charges of misconduct and corruption, private citizens and elected officials said yesterday this only goes to show that \u201cno one is above the law\u201d and that the former \u201csilent majority\u201d will no longer tolerate abuse of power and corruption in government. Later in the day, however, some were taken aback by the \u201cno jail time\u201d sentence and $14,000 fine imposed on the CNMI\u2019s former highest law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the magnitude of the offenses and him being attorney general when those acts were committed, one would expect there would be at least jail time,\u201d Rep. Ray Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune during a House session break yesterday.<\/p>\n
While the conviction tells the public that \u201cno one is above the law,\u201d he said it also \u201cseems like it\u2019s okay to commit those wrongdoing in the CNMI because you won\u2019t be imprisoned anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tebuteb, however, said he respects the judicial process.<\/p>\n
As a member of the Legislature that helped bring to light many of the issues related to the charges against Buckingham as well as former governor Benigno R. Fitial, Tebuteb said lawmakers need to \u201cre-examine the ethics law\u201d and related laws to \u201censure tougher penalties for government officials\u201d found guilty of corruption, among other things.<\/p>\n
Rep. Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan) said the court has spoken, just as the people have spoken on the issue of corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lesson for all government officials that no one is above the law, regardless of who you are and what you are. We live in a society that is governed by the rule of law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Glen Hunter, a private citizen who has been advocating for an accountable and corruption-free government, said the verdict \u201cshould send a message to those in our government and those in positions of authority that they are not above the law and that the people are not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a personal level, Hunter is \u201crelieved to see closure in this particular issue\u201d but said there are \u201cother connected issues that are still outstanding and I hope that they too are eventually finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckingham is the first former attorney general in CNMI history to stand trial on criminal charges.<\/p>\n
His conviction and sentencing happened on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Fitial\u2019s resignation on Feb. 20, 2013, days before the start of the former governor\u2019s impeachment trial at the Senate for corruption, neglect of duty, and felony. The charges leveled against Buckingham were related to the articles of impeachment against Fitial.<\/p>\n
Some lawmakers that supported Fitial\u2019s impeachment said yesterday that if Buckingham was found guilty of most charges, \u201chow much more Fitial, who was the one who ordered Buckingham and others to do things and charged with criminal acts?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018More trials\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite their disappointment with the lack of jail time for Buckingham, citizens and government officials were still elated to see that \u201cjustice is served.\u201d<\/p>\n Tina Sablan, a former KSPN2 reporter who caught on camera Buckingham\u2019s \u201cescort\u201d saga from the Aquarius Hotel to the Saipan International Airport in 2012, said yesterday that \u201clike many citizens of the CNMI, I do feel a sense of relief that Mr. Buckingham has finally had his day in court, and that justice has been served.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs we all know, however, this story does not end with the former attorney general\u2019s conviction and sentencing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sablan said there were other public officials who were also implicated in criminal conspiracies with Buckingham and who were also involved in various acts of misconduct and abuse of power.<\/p>\n \u201cThese individuals have yet to be brought to justice. There should be more trials to come, including that of former governor Benigno Fitial, who remains at large. Mr. Fitial must be brought back to the CNMI to face his charges,\u201d Sablan added.<\/p>\n Sablan, now pursuing urban planning at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, hopes that the Buckingham case \u201cserves to restore some of the public trust that was lost, strengthens our commitment to safeguarding freedom of the press and the independence of our watchdog agencies, and reminds us all of how important it is to continue in our collective efforts to clean up our government and hold our public officials accountable when they abuse the power we give them.\u201d<\/p>\n Sablan, a former member of the CNMI House of Representatives, added that she has \u201cso much respect and gratitude for the many fine people who found the courage to do the right thing even when it was hard.\u201d<\/p>\n She was referring to \u201cthe incredibly dedicated staff of the Office of the Public Auditor, the whistleblowers and media tipsters, the citizens who rallied in the streets, the lawmakers who stood with them, the government witnesses who told the truth at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think as a community, we have learned many valuable lessons these last few years about how dangerous it is to allow ourselves to be ruled by complacency and fear. I hope that these are lessons we remember forever, and teach our children,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Hunter, meanwhile, added that the once \u201csilent majority\u201d in the CNMI should feel a sense of vindication.<\/p>\n He said they \u201cpushed aside their fears and took a stand against a corrupt administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the verdict is yet another step toward a better CNMI,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said the verdict of guilty on seven counts \u201cgoes to show that no one, including the Commonwealth\u2019s chief law enforcement official, is above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot say that I am pleased that our Commonwealth had to go through this trial. But we have. And we must remain vigilant in the conduct of the public\u2019s business and we can, today, say to ourselves that we will no longer tolerate the abuse of power by our public officials,\u201d Sablan said when sought for comment.<\/p>\n \u2018Let justice take its course\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Rep. Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan), chairman of the former Special Committee on Impeachment, said the conviction is a result of \u201cwhat was going on\u201d in previous years, and \u201cthat something was wrong in the way government was being run back then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, this is a judicial process. We just have to respect the outcome\u2026 At least the people have spoken, the Legislature has spoken, and now the courts are in agreement that what we saw going on in government back then was wrong, that government officials, people in government should be [held] accountable for their action, that no one is above the law\u2026\u201d the former CNMI immigration director said.<\/p>\n When asked whether the Buckingham conviction would help strengthen the criminal case against Fitial himself who was the subject of impeachment resolutions, Sablan said the judicial process should be allowed to take its course.<\/p>\n House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), main author of the impeachment resolutions against Fitial, echoed Sablan\u2019s statement to allow the judicial process \u201cto take its course.\u201d<\/p>\n The speaker said he won\u2019t comment further on Fitial\u2019s criminal case \u201cbecause I do want him to have a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet the prosecution and the defense argue their points and then what happens as a result of that, we\u2019ll see,\u201d Deleon Guerrero added.<\/p>\n In the halls of the CNMI Legislature and other government and private sector offices, the breaking news of the former attorney general\u2019s fate instantly became a hot topic yesterday.<\/p>\n Not to be outdone, social media was also abuzz with the Buckingham verdict and sentence within minutes of the court decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cFinally, he should have pleaded but no, he was so sure the climate is still the same\u2026wrong!\u201d one said on social media. Another one said, \u201cDecision was spot on, but the conviction is not punitive at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJudge Govendo applied the law appropriately. He is just bound by CNMI law\u2014it\u2019s up to the Legislature to fix those discrepancies. More broadly, it\u2019s really up to us voters,\u201d another one wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Within hours of Edward Taylor Buckingham III\u2019s conviction and sentencing related to charges of misconduct…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,665],"tags":[56,26,67,50],"class_list":["post-28148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-must-clicks","tag-business-3","tag-cnmi","tag-people","tag-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28148","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}