SAIPAN — Representative Marissa R. Flores has denounced the Senate’s passage of Senate Bill 24-53, a measure she characterized as a politically timed act of institutional disarmament aimed at the office of the Attorney General, which voters made independent by constitutional amendment in 2014.
Flores, of Precinct 3, Saipan, serves as Floor Leader of the CNMI House of Representatives. In a release issued Friday, she said the Senate passed the bill nine days after the filing deadline closed for the 2026 Attorney General’s race, the first open race for the office since 2014, and 81 days before the Nov. 3 general election.
“459 days of silence. 9 days of speed. The Senate has told you exactly what it values, and exactly when,” Flores said.
The 459 days refers to House Bill 23-22, Flores’ 2023 measure that she said would have strengthened the Attorney General’s investigative authority. Flores introduced the bill on March 9, 2023, joined by Representatives Ogo, Villagomez and Yangetmai, and the House passed it on May 10, 2023. According to the release, the Senate held the bill for 459 days without a hearing, a reading or a vote before quietly filing it away on Jan. 3, 2025.
“They came for the Attorney General nine years ago. The late Rep. Frank Dela Cruz saw it and voted no. He is not here to warn us again. So, I will,” Flores said. “In 2023, I gave this Senate 459 days to strengthen the Attorney General. They gave me silence. In 2026, they needed nine days to weaken him. The people of the Commonwealth know what an election-season bill looks like.”
Flores drew a parallel to July 6, 2017, when the House passed House Bill 20-43 on an 11-8 vote. She said eight members, including the late Representative Frank Dela Cruz, voted against what she described as the same structural playbook now used in SB 24-53.
Flores chairs the House Committee on Tourism and authored House Bill 23-22, the Attorney General Investigative Division Act. The release was issued in memory of the late Representative Francisco “Frank” Santos Dela Cruz of Precinct 3, Saipan, who died Jan. 6, 2019.
