{"id":330799,"date":"2020-10-01T06:02:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T20:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=330799"},"modified":"2020-10-01T06:02:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T20:02:27","slug":"former-dps-exec-babauta-likely-to-replace-propst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/former-dps-exec-babauta-likely-to-replace-propst\/","title":{"rendered":"Former DPS exec Babauta likely to replace Propst"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the resignation of Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) as a member of the House of Representatives, Franklin Reyes Babauta, a retired official of the Department of Public Safety, will likely be given the chance to serve Precinct 1 and the Commonwealth for over three months as a lawmaker.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao (R-Saipan) said in an interview Tuesday that, under the CNMI Constitution, vacancies in the Legislature have to be filled by the appointment of the unsuccessful candidate in a previous election.<\/p>\n

Attao said that, if he is not mistaken, it\u2019s Babauta. That is, if he chooses to accept it.<\/p>\n

Babauta, who ran as an independent candidate, landed seventh place in the 2018 election for Precinct 1, where there were six House positions for grabs.<\/p>\n

Babauta\u2019s wife, Celina, is a known critic of the administration and is running for House Precinct 1 this coming Nov. 3 elections.<\/p>\n

The speaker said if Babauta does not accept, the next highest voter will be appointed to serve the remaining term.<\/p>\n

Propst\u2019s resignation will take effect today, Thursday. His term was supposed to end on Jan. 11, 2021.<\/p>\n

Attao said a lawmaker\u2019s resignation is unprecedented and that it happened only once in the CNMI\u2019s history back in the 17th Legislature when then-representative Diego Benavente resigned.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s the most recent history. I don\u2019t remember or I cannot find another case of a member from this body that had resigned during their term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Attao said Benavente turned in his resignation to then House speaker Eli Cabrera.<\/p>\n

By virtue of the constitution, more than half of the term was left and the unsuccessful candidate of the sixth seat in Precinct 1 at the time was the person who was appointed, Attao said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Franklin Reyes Babauta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the constitutional language. That\u2019s how the Constitution is written,\u201d the speaker said.<\/p>\n

Then-governor Eloy Inos appointed Rep. Janet U. Maratita (R-Saipan) to the 17th Legislature in 2011, replacing Benavente who resigned on June 30, 2011, after serving the Legislature for more than 15 years. Benavente served as lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006 to then-governor Juan N. Babauta.<\/p>\n

Attao said that, as in every other job, the boss would either accept the resignation or reject it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe position of elected officials is very unique because your application is to the people, your constituents, they placed you into office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding Propst\u2019s resignation Monday, Attao said he was saddened, but not disappointed when he received the resignation letter Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Attao said that, just like to any member in the Legislature, he respects Propst and that he cannot tell him what to do or what not to do.<\/p>\n

The speaker said if that\u2019s their choice, he is not going to try to influence them one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Attao said it\u2019s clear in Propst\u2019s message that he took the time to talk to his family and friends to come to this conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always respect anybody\u2019s decision. It\u2019s sad. It\u2019s hard but only he knows why he is resigning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Propst stepped down from his job Monday, saying that he has reached his limits due to an extremely stressful job, the attacks on his name, and cyber bullying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the resignation of Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) as a member of the House…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":330800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330799","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}