In a memorandum served on CNMI Customs director Jose Mafnas by Finance Secretary David Atalig on July 21, 2022, Mafnas, the long-time head of the Division of Customs, was abruptly removed from his post, and re-assigned to the Department of Commerce effective immediately. <\/p>\n
In his memorandum, Atalig seems to contradict himself as, in it, he praised Mafnas\u2019 leadership as \u201coutstanding\u201d for the Customs Division and even acknowledged the director as a \u201cproductive and competent\u201d leader of the Department of Finance\u2019s management team, all the while inexplicably informing Mafnas of his removal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe abrupt removal of Director Mafnas from his position, despite the glowing praises from the Secretary of Finance, is nothing short of a failed attempt to cover up a political retaliation against the director,\u201d said Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios. \u201cThis is very petty. I find it appalling that, as a Commonwealth, we have stooped this low. We are better than this. We need to rise above the fray and give our people the freedom to choose their leaders without fear of retaliation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The removal of Mafnas from his position is just the latest of a growing list of hardworking, dedicated government employees that have been given the \u201cpink slip\u201d for being suspected of not supporting the administration. <\/p>\n
Mayor David M. Apatang also expressed his frustration about the apparent political firings and harassment and Mafnas\u2019 reassignment. \u201cWhat happened to Director Mafnas is a travesty, not just for Mafnas, but for our people who have benefitted from his steadfast leadership and success in keeping drugs from entering the CNMI and keeping our borders secure,\u201d said Apatang. \u201cThis type of political gamesmanship has no place in the Marianas that we all know and it must stop now.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a memorandum served on CNMI Customs director Jose Mafnas by Finance Secretary David Atalig…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":372947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372946","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\/372946","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}