{"id":347486,"date":"2021-07-07T06:05:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=347486"},"modified":"2021-07-07T06:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:05:52","slug":"torres-utility-bills-for-5-mos-after-yutu-reached-6630","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-utility-bills-for-5-mos-after-yutu-reached-6630\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Torres\u2019 utility bills for 5 mos. after Yutu reached $6,630\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Reps. Christina E. Sablan (D-Saipan) and Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) show documents to Department of Finance\u2019s finance and accounting director Bernadita C. Palacios during a short recess yesterday at the hearing before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee. Also in the photo are lawyer Matthew Gregory and House legislative assistant Cameron Nicholas.
(FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 utility bills in the five months after Super Typhoon Yutu\u2019s devastation on Saipan in October 2018 totaled $6,630 and the governor paid it in cash and was subsequently reimbursed by the government.<\/p>\n

This was learned during the testimony yesterday of Department of Finance\u2019s finance and accounting director Bernadita C. Palacios, who testified about Torres\u2019 residential utilities before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee that is investigating the governor\u2019s and first lady\u2019s travels and expenses.<\/p>\n

Rep. Christina E. Sablan (D-Saipan) showed Palacios a copy of a request to reimburse Torres for his residential utilities dated March 14, 2019, which was submitted to Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig. The reimbursement request had been submitted by Shirley C. Ogumoro, acting assistant to the administration.<\/p>\n

Sablan said that, according to the memo, the total reimbursement amount to Torres was $6,630 covering the five-month period from October 2018 to February 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly, colleagues, this reimbursement request covers the period right after Super Typhoon Yutu when most homes on Saipan lacked utilities for weeks and even months,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

In response to Sablan\u2019s questions, Palacios said it\u2019s her signature in the memo that certifies that funds were available to pay the utilities under the account of the Office of the Governor. Palacios said these were expenses incurred at the governor\u2019s private residence. The director said Torres was reimbursed for the entire amount.<\/p>\n

Sablan showed a copy of what appears to be a printout from the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s ledger for Torres\u2019 account that was attached to the reimbursement request. Palacios said the document indicated that the balance owed to the governor includes late penalty fees.<\/p>\n

The director agreed with Sablan that Torres was also reimbursed by the government for paying the late fees.<\/p>\n

Sablan also showed a receipt from CUC that was attached to the reimbursement request. Sablan said the CUC receipt indicates that $6,700 was paid in cash and that change was given back in the amount of $69.10.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn your experience, have you ever seen any governor pay for his CUC bills with such a large sum of cash?\u201d the lawmaker asked the witness, who replied, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sablan was curious if this did not strike Palacios as unusual. \u201cI just find it\u2019s unusual, particularly since this governor apparently had access to so many credit cards,\u201d said Sablan.<\/p>\n

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) said this is a period of five months\u2014October 2018 to February 2019\u2014for reimbursement for residential utilities, water, sewer, and power. He pointed out that Saipan had no power for a couple of months after Yutu.<\/p>\n

Breaking down the $6,630 for each month of five months, that\u2019s comes down to $1,326 for utility bills, Propst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I can tell you that if the average person got this utility bill, they\u2019ll probably pass out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Propst said it\u2019s just quite unusual to consume that much power. \u201cWe live in a four-bedroom house and we average probably $400 to $500 a month. On a bad month, that\u2019s a high month. We try to keep it down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Propst said $1,326 a month is astounding and that perhaps solar panels should be recommended if the government is going to be paying for the governor\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

Palacios completed her testimony yesterday. She started testifying last Friday with her counsel, Matthew Gregory.<\/p>\n

JGO chair Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) said the hearing will continue tomorrow, Thursday, at 10am, but that there will be no witnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 utility bills in the five months after Super Typhoon Yutu\u2019s devastation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":347487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347486","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=347486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}