The Governor\u2019s Office presented yesterday a 2003 Senate session report showing that the Senate had actually confirmed Pamela Brown as attorney general.<\/p>\n
In a three-page report to the governor dated Nov. 18, 2003, the Executive Branch\u2019s Programs and Legislative Review Office mentioned that Brown\u2019s appointment as attorney general was unanimously approved by the five Senate members present in a session on Nov. 17, 2003, on Rota.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso adopted were two standing committee reports on Executive Appointment and Government Investigation relating to the governor\u2019s appointment of Ms. Pamela Brown to serve as [attorney general], which was unanimously adopted and the governor\u2019s appointment of Mr. Allen M. Perez to serve as a member of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. representing Tinian was also adopted,\u201d said the report.<\/p>\n
This developed after the Public Defender\u2019s Office and other groups questioned Brown\u2019s legitimacy as attorney general, citing the lack of such record in the Nov. 17, 2003, Senate journal.<\/p>\n
When checked, the journal showed that the Senate, led by then Senate President Paul M. Manglona only approved standing committee reports 13-77 to 13-81. The recommendation to confirm Brown was contained in SCR 13-93.<\/p>\n
Press secretary Peter A. Callaghan said that, based on the Senate Order of Business for Nov. 17, 2003, the Senate clerk had written by hand SCR 13-93 and 13-98 (Perez\u2019s confirmation) under agenda K.<\/p>\n
He said it is a common practice to just write in additional items for discussion during a legislative session.<\/p>\n
Further, Callaghan cited that based on the Programs and Legislative Review Office report, several other officials present during the Rota session could testify on the Senate confirmation of the attorney general.<\/p>\n
The report said that the session, which included a swearing-in ceremony for newly elected Rota senator Paterno S. Hocog and Tinian senator Joseph Mendiola, was attended by Gov. Juan N. Babauta, Rota Mayor Benjamin Manglona, Associate Justice Alexandro C. Castro, Rep. Norman S. Palacios, and Legislative Bureau director Walter Macaranas.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes said the lack of the confirmation record on the Senate journal was highly questionable.<\/p>\n
Reyes has also pointed out that the tape recording of the Rota session gave no confirmation of the proceeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe listened to the tape\u2026 and there\u2019s nothing there about the confirmation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The senator said it was highly questionable for the Senate to produce a voting list showing that the five majority senators\u2014Manglona, Diego Songao, Joaquin Adriano, Joseph Mendiola, and Paterno S. Hocog\u2014voted yes to Brown\u2019s appointment, and yet neither the Senate journal nor the tape recording would back it up.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Rota session, Reyes\u2019 group, which had gained control of the Senate majority in Aug. 2003, had rejected Brown\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Governor\u2019s Office presented yesterday a 2003 Senate session report showing that the Senate had actually confirmed Pamela Brown as attorney general.<\/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-86988","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\/86988","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=86988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}