(Editor's note: This is the eleventh in an expose of the members of the Commonwealth Legislature, who have taken monthly allowances on top of their salaries)
CHAPTER 11: Justo Quitugua
By Jacob Nakamura
(Tumon, Guam) Saipan Senator Justo Quitugua, unlike most of this Republican colleagues in the Senate, has opened his doors to the inspection of the receipts of his expenditures of a total $31,903.22 in allowances he took in Fiscal Year 2019.
According to documents released by the Department of Finance, Mr. Quitugua did not avail of the allowance since Fiscal Year 2020 began and since disclosures by Secretary of Finance David Atalig, Jr. of the Commonwealth's precarious financial condition.
However, in FY 2019, Mr. Quitugua did avail of the allowance every month of the fiscal year from the start of his term in the Twenty-first Commonwealth Legislature. In January 2019, Mr. Quitugua took $2,903.22, followed by allowances of $5,000, $3,000, $3,000, $3,000, and $3,000 for February through June, respectively; and $4,000, and $5,000 for August and September, respectively.
Mr. Quitugua is married to Assistant Commissioner of Education Jackie Quitugua, whose school system is under siege by the Torres administration for funding that constitutionally is owed to the Public School System.
Kandit will be taking up Mr. Quitugua's offer to retrieve the receipts of his expenditures, and will report those receipts accordingly.
