Oh my. Yesterday's news kind of taken me slightly off my seat when it was reported that the top two CNMI officials have had a rift for a long time now. I thought I could see it right before my eyes long before the rift between Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and his Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez.
I heard that the second head has not had the power of any sort to run the local government. Former Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente was tasked to handle the Water Task Force then. For Villagomez now, what he has done so far is to act as governor whenever (which was frequent) the governor was away for medical treatment or signed minor bills, laws or proclamation letters.
During that time of austerity, the Lt. Gov. signed something about the austerity Fridays that excluded some people including those are working at the Public Health. I remember the governor retracted that authorization and quipped on how surprised he was that "my Lt. Gov." was signing such document.
What does this tell us, I mean the rift between the two?
Again, you tell me.
The Reveler
2 comments:
It was an odd combination from the very beginning. You have Fitial, who lost his first try for Governor as the Head of the Covenant party, aligning himself with a large block of Republicans for his second try. In order to get this election support, he had to bring on Villagomez as the Lt. Governor. It wasn't a marriage of ideals. The Lt. Governors dad, Dr. V, weilded much of the power of the entire Republican party for a long time. He was the man who literally pulled the strings in the background. Without the support of the Villagomez and Tenorio families, Fitial would not have won under any circumstances. As witnessed by the election, he barely pulled it off even with the backing of this large block of Republicans. P
Dr. Villagomez wasn't justng pulling the strings. He was calling the shots. I know that Secretaries for example had to submit requests directly to Dr. Villagomez.
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