By Nancy I. Maanao
(Tumon, Guam) The Commonwealth reimbursed Gov. Ralph Torres another $2,669.24 in 2017 following another round of shopping and dining sprees he supposedly went on. What has come to be customary in our findings of his misuse of public money are the hundreds of dollars spent at restaurants, shopping at Joeten supermarkets, and even supposed gift items for visitors.
However, this reimbursement memo, filed November 28, 2017, shows two anomolies.
The first is a receipt from the Home Depot Guam. On November 11, 2017, Mr. Torres purchased a $119 chainsaw and a 2-pack replacement chain for $143. He even purchased a fancy wheelbarrow called a Worx Aerocart for $139.
It's hard to imagine how he hand-carried or checked in these items at the airport on his way back to Saipan.
The other peculiar entry is for a $111.00 reimbursement for food purchased at the Narita International Airport, with the justification "Hosting Japanese Investor." No other information is provided, except for the receipt; no name or company name is provided.
However, in order for this entry to be true, the so-called and unnamed Japanese investor would have to have purchased a ticket to leave Japan, checked in at the airport then travelled through Narita's massive terminals in order to meet Mr. Torres inside the controlled terminal areas.
Despite the fluid revelations of evidence of these abuses of power and misuse of public funds, the Commonwealth Legislature has not yet set any hearings to investigate and impeach the governor.
You may see the reimbursement memo and corresponding receipts below:
I have to take a corruption, and then wipe my CNMI.
@ peoplevspower, thank you for this clarification, hopefully this is the truth as so many others over the years since he was first elected have commented about his time on the golf course that contradicts this. (along with published accounts)
I will take your observation on the CC comment though.
The lack of this AG due diligence is surprising and not understandable, not only in any ongoing wrong doings that is still being outed on many, but many other incident's over the many years he has held this AG office, especially the $400K that went to Victor's family without any paperwork.
This along with lack of investigation and prosecution even as being referred to the AG by other Govt. entities,…
So much dishonesty. I feel for the CNMI. Enough is enough already. I guess we just need the poor to be elected so they know how we minorities feel.
Where did this "golfing manibusan" thing come from?
Elkapitan, I'm one of his golfing buddy and sorry to say but the AG only plays on Sunday and sometimes on holidays but never on working days. I am not going to defend him because you're entitle to your opinion but what's troubling though, is whether you are seeking for justice or trying to obstruct justice.. I would also like to note that for all the years that we played together, never once that he used a CC.