{"id":351006,"date":"2021-09-02T06:05:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=351006"},"modified":"2021-09-02T06:05:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:05:34","slug":"flores-absence-at-session-triggers-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/flores-absence-at-session-triggers-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Flores\u2019 absence at session triggers debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The absence of Rep. Joseph A. Flores (Ind-Saipan) from the House of Representatives\u2019 Tuesday session, during which his bill was the only measure on the calendar for action, triggered debate among some lawmakers over the actions being taken on the bill.<\/p>\n

At the session, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) announced that they have only one bill on the calendar, but they will be leaving it on the calendar at the request of the author, Flores. After much tug of war among the lawmakers, Villagomez put his foot down and stood firm on his ruling to leave the bill on calendar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Joseph Flores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

House Bill 22-3 seeks to amend the Commonwealth Code by requiring the motor vehicle liability insurance to expire at the same time as the vehicle registration expiration.<\/p>\n

The debate got started after House JGO Committee chair Rep. Celina R. Babauta took issue with the decision to not act on the bill during the session, saying she specifically came to the session to vote for this bill at the request of the author. \u201cThe fact that the author has prioritized a softball game over his duties here at the Legislature is not my concern,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

She said she is ready to vote on the bill and that she would like to hear from House floor leader Ralph N. Yumul (R-Saipan) why it has been deferred. \u201cAnd really why should we delay the inevitable of this bill?\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

She also took issue with Flores earlier requesting for the bill to be yanked out of the JGO Committee and criticized Yumul for not asking her or letting her know that the bill will be yanked out of the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re attacking the author of the bill and we\u2019re questioning the authority of the floor leader. Wow!\u201d said Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Celina R. Babauta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier, he stated that it is a practice in the House that the author be given respect to be present to vote on his\/her bill.<\/p>\n

Rep. Christina E. Sablan (D-Saipan) said they respect the Speaker\u2019s and the floor leader\u2019s call to table the bill until the next session but Flores\u2019 reasoning for pulling the bill out of the JGO Committee in the first place was because it was urgent, yet despite the bill now on calendar, his being not there to vote only underscores the bill\u2019s lack of urgency.<\/p>\n

Besides Flores, Reps. Jonathan Blas Jonathan T. Attao and Joel C. Camacho, were also absent at the session. Villagomez said they\u2019re excused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The absence of Rep. Joseph A. Flores (Ind-Saipan) from the House of Representatives\u2019 Tuesday session,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":351016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351006","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\/351006","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=351006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}