Senate: Macaranas disqualified from DPS post since April

The CNMI Senate says Anthony I. Macaranas has been legally disqualified from serving as Department of Public Safety commissioner since April 4, more than five months before the latest firing-and-reinstatement controversy involving Gov. David M. Apatang.

That is the central argument in the Senate’s lawsuit filed Friday, Sept. 18, against Apatang and Macaranas, along with a motion seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Macaranas from exercising the powers of DPS commissioner while the case is pending.

Macaranas was first removed Feb. 23 by then-Acting Gov. Dennis C. Mendiola while Apatang was off-island. Aniceto T. Ogumoro then served as acting commissioner until Apatang reinstated Macaranas on March 5.

The Senate argues that Macaranas’ return constituted an assumption of the commissioner’s duties following a vacancy and therefore required his appointment to be submitted to the Senate for advice and consent within 30 days.

That never happened, according to the complaint.

Under 1 CMC § 2902, the Senate says Macaranas’ appointment automatically terminated around April 4 and he became disqualified from reappointment. It also cites a separate 90-day requirement under 1 CMC § 2904, which the Senate argues produced the same result around June 3.

The issue resurfaced this month after Apatang and Mendiola were both off-island and Senate President Karl R. King-Nabors assumed the duties of acting governor.

On Sept. 11, King-Nabors removed Macaranas and nominated Ogumoro as commissioner, subject to Senate advice and consent. Apatang reversed both actions upon his return, withdrawing Ogumoro’s nomination and rescinding Macaranas’ removal.

Apatang said in his Sept. 14 letter that the constitutional provision allowing the Senate president to become acting governor “was not intended, and should not be abused, to supplant the policy agenda of the duly elected chief executive of the Commonwealth.”

“Accordingly, I am withdrawing the nomination of Mr. Ogumoro and rescinding the second attempt to terminate Commissioner Anthony I. Macaranas,” Apatang wrote.

In a separate memorandum to DPS, Apatang also asserted that Macaranas was on sick leave Sept. 11 and had never been served with the termination notice.

The Senate counters that King-Nabors had the full powers of the governor while serving as acting governor, including the authority to remove executive department heads.

But it also argues that the Sept. 11 removal does not determine Macaranas’ legal status because, under the Senate’s interpretation, he had already been disqualified months earlier.

“Even if the September 11, 2026 termination was illegitimate or did not happen, Mr. Macaranas was already disqualified from holding the office under the automatic operation of two statutes,” the Senate said.

The Senate said the lawsuit followed months of attempts to settle the dispute without going to court. Beginning in May, King-Nabors repeatedly asked the administration to provide its legal basis for keeping Macaranas in office.

In July, King-Nabors proposed that the Senate and administration jointly submit eight legal questions to the NMI Supreme Court.

Apatang declined July 24, saying he and the attorney general “d[id] not believe that litigating this issue would be a prudent use of the government’s limited resources.”

The Senate is now seeking declaratory judgment, relief in the nature of quo warranto and injunctive relief. It wants the Superior Court to determine whether Macaranas has lawful authority to hold the DPS post and whether Apatang’s Sept. 14 actions had legal effect.

It is also asking the court to immediately bar Macaranas from exercising the commissioner’s powers and schedule an expedited hearing on a preliminary injunction.

The Senate argues that allowing Macaranas to continue serving while his authority is disputed creates uncertainty over law enforcement decisions, personnel actions, contracts and directives issued under his leadership.