‘Stateless’ will just have to wait

I applaud the Attorney General for taking the position that the stay in Sabangan v. Powell for the panel rehearing is reason enough to hold back the EAP checks for those like Mr. Mendoza who is now crying that he may have to pay for his own college education.

Well, sir, the CNMI EAP program was intended for U.S. citizens. With the stay placed by the 9th Circuit Courts of Appeal, you continue to be a citizen of the Philippines. Once the panel rehearing is done, and the courts rule in your favor, then you may participate in many of the programs that others in our community take part in.

What is ironic is that the 9th Circuit Court has determined that you and your co-plaintiffs became U.S. citizens before anyone else in the former Marianas District of the TTPI. I and over 7,000 TTPI citizens became U.S. citizens on Nov. 4, 1986. If the court decides in your favor, you became a citizen before we did, even before those like Ed Pangelinan, Pete A. Tenorio, the late Tun Juan Dlg. Cabrera, the late Dr. Francisco T. Palacios, among others—individuals who negotiated the Covenant. And this is where the courts are wrong because no one in the NMI became a U.S. citizen until Nov. 4, 1986. That is why we celebrate Citizenship Day.

In the NMI, there are NMI descents and former TTPI citizens who continue to be denied U.S. passports. I could name a few but I prefer not to. These are people whose status fell between the cracks—an 11-year crack—the time when the constitutional government was installed and when Covenant Article III was made effective with the termination of the Trusteeship for the NMI.

Incidentally, Mr. Mendoza and his co-plaintiffs call themselves “stateless” as if they are ashamed of their nationality or as if they were abandoned by their parents’ country. My children, whose mother hails from the Philippines, happily declare themselves part Filipinos. The 9th Circuit’s decision, if you read the brief submitted for the panel rehearing, shows that the decision in Sabangan is inconsistent with prior decisions of the same Court of Appeals circuit. But until the entire process is done, you will have to just wait. Just like we waited for over a decade after the Covenant took effect to become U.S. citizens. What’s a few months compared to the over 10 years we had to wait?

Gregorio C. Sablan
Garapan