Instead of making Frances Dela Cruz appear before the House of Representatives Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee to be questioned as part of its ongoing probe into Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 expenditures of public funds and travels, she should be allowed to provide, in writing and under oath, responses to written questions asked by committee members.<\/p>\n
This was the proposal of Torres\u2019 Washington D.C.-based lawyer, Ross Garber, even as the committee insisted on summoning Dela Cruz, the governor\u2019s executive assistant, to personally appear before the committee. JGO Committee chair Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) rejected Garber\u2019s proposal as \u201cunreasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babauta told Garber in a letter last Friday that the proposal is, in effect, a proposal for the subpoena to Dela Cruz to be set aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cLive testimony is substantively different from written interrogatories and is not an adequate substitute,\u201d she said, adding that providing any witness with the questions ahead of time provides no assurances that the answers that would be submitted would be Dela Cruz\u2019s and hers alone.<\/p>\n
Babauta said they see no reason to doubt that Dela Cruz is lawfully subject to subpoena and may be held in contempt if she fails to appear.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, please be advised that the JGO Committee is mandated to investigate and, to this end, we are prepared to fulfill this mandate through remedies to enforce the subpoena, if necessary,\u201d she told Garber.<\/p>\n
Torres hired Garber to represent him and the Governor\u2019s Office in the JGO\u2019s investigation into the governor\u2019s expenditures of public funds and travels.<\/p>\n
Garber earlier objected to the JGO Committee\u2019s subpoena for Dela Cruz to testify, asserting that the executive assistant has testimonial immunity.<\/p>\n
In his proposal to Babauta last Thursday, Garber said that Dela Cruz\u2019s written responses would be delivered within seven days of receipt of the committee\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny assertion of privilege would be accompanied by a written explanation from counsel to the Office of the Governor,\u201d Garber said.<\/p>\n
He said should the committee determine that Dela Cruz\u2019s responses are not satisfactory, she and the Office of the Governor will work in good faith with the committee to provide additional responses and, if necessary, revisit the topic of in-person testimony. \u201cThis proposal would certainly accommodate a desire by the committee to expeditiously and efficiently obtain accurate information from Ms. Dela Cruz,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babauta earlier had stated that Garber\u2019s objection has no legal basis and that Dela Cruz remains subject to subpoena for the hearing. <\/p>\n
Garber, who is known for his expertise in impeachment proceedings, wrote to Babauta last Oct. 11, stating his objection to the subpoena for Dela Cruz to testify. Garber said the CNMI Constitution mirrors the separation and balance of powers embodied in the U.S. Constitution and thus grants testimonial immunity to certain Executive Branch officials.<\/p>\n
Babauta postponed the JGO hearing set for last Thursday, and reset it tomorrow, Tuesday, at 10:30am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Instead of making Frances Dela Cruz appear before the House of Representatives Judiciary and Governmental…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":353939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353928","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\/353928","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=353928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}