Once again, the educational background of Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board member Joe Torres is being investigated to see if he is indeed qualified to stay on the board.<\/p>\n
After passing the scrutiny of the Attorney General\u2019s Office in October last year, Torres is being investigated now on the same issue by the Senate, the body that confirmed his appointment to his position early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a joke. They are investigating their own action,\u201d said Torres in an interview.<\/p>\n
In a June 10 letter to CUC board chair Herman P. Sablan, Sen. Paterno S. Hocog, chairman of the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations, said that no less than Senate President Joaquin S. Adriano pushed for the probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cSen. Adriano\u2026has requested my committee to investigate the educational background of CUC board member Joseph T. Torres,\u201d Hocog told Sablan. \u201cHowever, before I can initiate any investigative process, I kindly request that you provide me information relative to [Torres]\u2019 educational background.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hocog said the documents Torres submitted just before his confirmation contained only his resume, and did not include copies of his AA degree in either Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration, or in Body and Fender. <\/p>\n
Hocog asked Sablan to provide the documents within seven working days.<\/p>\n
In his letter to Torres yesterday, Sablan asked his colleague to comply with the Senate order.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo once and for all put this issue to rest, I am kindly requesting your cooperation to provide the document requested,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
For his part, Torres said he wonders why the issue has been revived at this time. \u201cWhat are they up to? If they want to fire me, they can be honest; say it. No need to do an investigation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He said that, as an appointee, he went through the whole process, including a hearing conducted by the Senate panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a question of their work. Did they do their work when they confirmed me?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Torres said he had been willing to provide the needed information as requested by the AGO last year, which, he said, failed to come up with a written report after looking into his credentials.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave my consent for investigation\u2026 I asked them to put it down in writing, but I was told that the AG didn\u2019t want to put it down in writing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Sources said the latest move on Torres, an outspoken member of the CUC board, is related to the upcoming annual board election. The election is usually held in June but the board\u2019s majority moved it to July this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Torres] is seen as a real threat, a constant pain that somehow spoils their plan,\u201d said a source.<\/p>\n
Sources said the upcoming election would be between the current chairman, Sablan, and \u201cwhoever Torres would be supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan\u2019s only \u201cremaining ally\u201d on the board is said to be his vice chairman, Frank Guerrero. <\/p>\n
The CUC board is composed of members Rufina Miles, Velma Ann Palacios, Allen Perez, and Torres.<\/p>\n
Last year, Torres\u2019 education background was probed by the AGO\u2019s Investigative Unit following a conflict over another board member\u2019s appointment, Jack Borja of Tinian.<\/p>\n
Borja, who had been confirmed by the Senate, was ordered terminated from the board by the governor on June 12, 2003 due to a lack of an Associate of Arts degree, a requirement for all CUC board members.<\/p>\n
Torres had accused some of his colleagues as behind the AGO investigation.<\/p>\n
When Borja was terminated, he had accused Guerrero of masterminding his ouster.<\/p>\n
In his declaration, Torres had said that he fully satisfies the law on the educational requirement.<\/p>\n
Torres said he holds two Associate of Arts degrees from the College of Southern Idaho, which he said he earned in the 70s. He said he holds AA in refrigeration and auto-body repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be a tradesman but I have earned that certification of my qualifications,\u201d he said. \u201cI have not been \u2018grandfathered\u2019 unlike perhaps some of my colleagues.\u201d <\/p>\n
Torres said that as a board member, he is fully committed \u201cto an efficient and autonomous public utility without interference and micromanagement by any entity, including the administration and the Legislature.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once again, the educational background of Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board member Joe Torres is being investigated to see if he is indeed qualified to stay on the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81809","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}