Macapagal-Arroyo comes full circle

Back in the islands after nearly 30 years, former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo admitted that her second go-around to the CNMI became sort of a full-circle moment for her when she addressed over 200 attendees of a luncheon held in her honor last Friday at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.

Macapagal-Arroyo, who was on Saipan as honorary chairwomen of the Tuloy Foundation whose football team was holding a training camp on the island (see related story on Page 20), said her first time to visit the CNMI was in 1997 under less auspicious circumstances following a series of articles on the Washington Post that alleged labor abuses committed against Filipino workers in the CNMI.

“I was a first-term senator in 1994 and in late 1994 there was a series of very bad articles about Saipan that appeared in the newspapers in Washington, especially the Washington Post. The stories written about Saipan were not written in the Philippines. The stories were [written] in Washington and now Jerry gave a good explanation of why the stories might have been in Washington and why it was so explosive,” she said.

The Jerry that Macapagal-Arroyo alluded to is Tan Holdings president and CEO Jerry Tan.

She went on to explain that 30 years ago, it was the height of the garment in industry on Saipan and because the Northern Mariana is a commonwealth of the United States, goods from the CNMI entered the United States without quota.

“The mainland garment manufacturers were being threatened by the Northern Mariana manufacturers. So, it was convenient for them to highlight or exaggerate any little incident here on Saipan, but not to talk about it on Saipan or even in the Philippines, but rather there in Washington, D.C. to influence the lawmakers to do something to make the garment industry here weaker and therefore make the garment industry in the mainland stronger. And so, they found the opportunity to do some of these articles.”

Some of the articles, Macapagal-Arroyo said, were damning to the CNMI especially with headlines like “Filipinos report rape, lockout.”

The immediate result of these articles was then-governor Froilan C. Tenorio became so incensed of the negative publicity that in a burst of anger threatened to ban Filipino workers from coming to Saipan.

“I was a new senator in 1994 and was going to run for reelection the year after and it was an important opportunity for me to show my concern for the welfare of overseas Filipinos. I made a privileged speech in the Senate and I wrote my old classmate, President Bill Clinton. I said, ‘ha! They’re going to ban Filipino workers on Saipan, I think we should ban the Filipino workers from going to Saipan! Let’s stick to it, and let’s see how Saipan’s economy is going to survive without our Filipino workers.’ That was my speech and I said the same thing to President Clinton in my letter to him,” said the former president.

Macapagal-Arroyo then said three things happened after her privileged speech in the Philippine Senate—first, the Clinton administration initiated the move to federalize immigration and labor laws in the CNMI; second, then Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos banned blue-collar workers from coming to Saipan; and third, she was reelected as the No. 1 senator in the Philippines.

In hindsight, Macapagal-Arroyo apologized for somewhat planting the seeds of the federalization of immigration in the CNMI because she seems to get the idea that Filipinos in the Commonwealth generally preferred the old system.

“My apology for the part that I might have played and that’s such a strong part in what happened. But it didn’t happen then. It happened many, many years later. So maybe that was slow in coming and not because of the incidents that happened then.”

Macapagal-Arroyo said the ban of blue-collar Filipino workers eventually was lifted in 1996 and months later he was visited by Tenorio in the Philippines.

She then recounted a conversation with the fourth governor of the CNMI when they finally met in the Philippines.

“He visited me and he said, ‘I know what you said about us and really I don’t want a ban of Filipinos.’ He then thanked Ramos for lifting the ban, but he wanted me to know that the stories I read in the Washington Post were not the reality of the Filipinos on Saipan. Maybe one or two cases but certainly not the reality. So, he said, ‘come to Saipan and see for yourself. Meet the Filipino community there and ask them how they feel. Do they feel exploited or do they feel proud that they are contributing to the Saipan economy aside from their own families in the Philippines.’ So, I came in late 1996 upon the invitation of the governor Tenorio.”

Later that year, Macapagal-Arroyo made her first trip to the CNMI where she met with leaders of the Filipino community, including Andrea Sablan, the wife of now Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP), and Elena Soll, the wife of the first Commonwealth court trial associate judge, Herbert D. Soll. In the end, he got a sense that her kababayans (countrymen) in the U.S. territory were indeed happy to be working and living in the Commonwealth.

“So, I met with them and I asked them, are you happy here? They said, ‘Yes, we are happy here.’ And you know, talking about it afterwards, here now and after Jerry explained the theory of why it happened, it is now very possible. Why did an article like that, a serious article, appear not on Saipan and not in the Philippines but in Washington, D.C.? It was really because of the growing power of the Saipan economy based on garment sales to the mainland. Elena said she never heard of the alleged atrocities that made headlines in in Washington, D.C. The long and short of it was that the Filipinos I met are very happy on Saipan.”

Macapagal-Arroyo again recounted that they told her they were glad the ban on Filipinos coming to Saipan was lifted and were happy to be earning and sending money to their families back home. Much more, they we’re also happy that the CNMI appreciated their contributions to the local economy.

“That was the way it was in 1996 when I first came. Now coming back here in 2024 it seems even more of the Filipinos’ contributions are given importance and appreciated by the CNMI people. I’m very happy to see that.”

Aside from Macapagal-Arroyo’s speech, Tan also had his time on stage and thanked her for accepting his invitation to once again make a trip to the CNMI. He also thanked Macapagal-Arroyo, who now represents the 2nd district of Pampanga in the Philippine House of Representatives, for agreeing to become the honorary chair of the Tuloy Foundation.

Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang also extended his gratitude to Macapagal-Arroyo for visiting the CNMI again and, in behalf of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, thanked her countrymen for their invaluable contributions to the Commonwealth, many of whom have made the Northern Marianas their home for decades.

Senate President Edith DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) and House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) sat with Macapagal-Arroyo in the presidential table near the stage along with Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband, former first gentleman Mike Arroyo. The luncheon for Macapagal-Arroyo was also attended by other local leaders from the government and business sectors, prominent members of the Filipino community in the CNMI, and legacy employees of Tan Holdings.