(Editor's note: This is the second in an expose of the members of the Commonwealth Legislature, who have taken monthly allowances on top of their salaries)
Maratita video below
By Johnnie Rosario

(Yigo, Guam) Precinct 3 Republican Congressman Jose Itibus received $35,013 from the Commonwealth government during 2019 for his total monthly allowance. He maxed out the allowance during five of the eight months he requested for and took the money.
Mr. Itibus is among those Republican members of the House who have refused to disclose the receipts of their spending of the allowance.
Documents from the Department of Finance provided to Kandit from an Open Government Act request show Mr. Itibus applied for a $2,500 allowance in February 2019, then a series of allowances for the following month on three different dates that amounted to $3,500.
His April allowance was maxed out at $5,000.
He did not receive allowances in May or June.
Then in July, Mr. Itibus requested an allowance for $3,000, then another allowance for $1,013 a few days later.
From August through November, Mr. Itibus received the maximum allowance of $5,000 per month.
Like his Republican colleague, Congresswoman Janet Maratita, Mr. Itibus increased the amounts of his allowance until he maxed out despite knowing about the growing fiscal crisis within the Commonwealth.
Reportedly;y from the past they do NOT pay any taxes on this money. although this has been brought in the past with no response or action as to why no being accountable and taxes being paid as being reported as it is actually personal income.
I am surprised that anyone even have any records of their expenditures, which seems that they do not in most cases.
They're paying income taxes (including social security taxes) on this "allowance" money, right? The social security portion would give IRS-CID jurisdiction to investigate. Or maybe the CNMI Department of Finance could stop harassing Filipino barbeque stands and start actually looking at politicians' undeclared income? Bribes are taxable income too, and not declaring them as income is a crime, or would be a crime if Finance actually pursued the matter.
"Cong." is Taglish. You can write "Rep." or "Sen." if you want to abbreviate.
The CNMI is a joke. And the people are to blame for not demanding that THEIR government eliminate the number of these "so called" legislators. The island is too small to justify the need. The government is nothing but a familia employment scheme and a form of legal robbery. How many years is it going to take before people realize that the island hasn't shown any signs of forward progress and never will if everything remains as it is. Sad thing about all of this is that the younger generation is going to be denied the opportunity to remain on the island and will (like so many others) have to live in the mainland to make a decent living. The…