The Guam Legislature will launch an investigation into forged documents that purported to cut funding for a recent raise for school teachers.
Resolution 67, which authorizes lawmakers to create a bipartisan investigative committee, passed with a split vote Thursday. The committee will be composed of three Democrat senators and two Republicans.
A document formatted to look like an official amendment from the Legislature circulating online last week purported funding for teacher raises would be taken and reprogrammed for school repairs. The forgery was reposted and then retracted by social media pages for the group Progressive Democrats of Guam during debate on the session floor. It bore the initials of Sen. Chris Duenas.
Republican lawmakers have called for a probe into the source of the documents and have said the false narrative put Duenas and lawmakers in danger.
“We definitely should not ever tolerate spreading misinformation regarding laws or lawmakers. This is attack not just on an individual but the institution,” Sen. Jesse Lujan said during debate on the resolution.
Opinions on the measure were mixed.
Sen. Joe San Agustin said he didn’t object to an investigative committee being created but believed it should be responsible for any incident targeting lawmakers.
Based on Resolution 67, the new committee would specifically be aimed at Progressive Democrats or those “associated with their organization and/or this fraudulent document.”
Lawmakers shouldn’t get involved when the police are investigating the forgery, according to Sen. Will Parkinson. Targets of the investigation also are people with a long history of criticizing some of those pushing for an investigation, he noted.
“I don’t think it serves the dignity of this body to entertain such a measure on a political witch hunt versus the Progressive Democrats of Guam and Adelup. I think we should let the police do their job.”
Parkinson is associated with the Progressive Democrats. The group’s Facebook page reposted a flyer for Parkinson’s campaign fundraiser last year. He also is still listed as a fundraising coordinator on the Progressive Democrats website, though the page appears to have some outdated information from 2020.
“It’s difficult to understand how it might be a witch hunt when the evidence before us, as we have already heard, … demonstrates the crime we actually have,” Sen. Tom Fisher, the bill’s main sponsor responded.
He said lawmakers swore an oath to uphold the laws of Guam and had an obligation to look into the matter. Fisher added he was disturbed at how nonchalant lawmakers were toward the crime.
“Why was this falsity dropped … in the course of a debate? What was the intent behind the dropping of this false amendment?” he said.
Sen. Telo Taitague objected to the resolution being placed on the voting file. She stated adequate public notice wasn’t provided, per the Open Government Law.
Sens. Chris Barnett, Frank Blas Jr., Joanne Brown, Duenas, Fisher, Lujan, Sabina Perez, and Dwayne San Nicolas voted to pass the measure.
Sens. Parkinson, Roy Quinata, San Agustin, Amanda Shelton, Speaker Therese Terlaje and Vice Speaker Tina Muña Barnes voted against it.
Sen. Telo Taitague passed and was counted as a no vote.
Central office responding to claims the forged document could have come from the central staff of the Legislature, Barnett said he was “offended.”
Progressive Democrats of Guam chapter leader Julian Janssen said he believed the document had originated with the Clerk of the Legislature.
A cursory, in-house forensic investigation was done, Barnett said. “We didn’t find any record of this false amendment in our system, or anywhere along the chain, from introduction to printing. There is no record of this amendment to being formulated, there is no record of this amendment existed,” he said.
A professional company had been contacted to take a look at the central computer system at the Legislature, Barnett added.
By: Joe Taitano II
Source: Pacific Daily News