Everybody is to blame

The Covenant Party is using the garment industry to criticize the Babauta administration, claiming that Gov. Juan N. Babauta has not done anything to avert the situation. Look at it this way: How can a governor of a small island stop a U.S. Congress action or even consider exempting the CNMI from a law that the U.S. president himself has sponsored when we do not even have a voice in the deliberation. Consider the root of the matter. We do not even have representation in Congress. Washington Representative Pete Tenorio should have been rallying supporters to make a massive letter writing to their congressmen to start deliberating on the issue or any means to make the U.S. Congress decide on the matter.

Consider also this: Here are our own congressmen focusing on politics rather than helping the government solve the problem. Now they are blaming the governor for not preparing for this historic event when they could have passed a legislation three years ago to cushion the impact of the lifting of the quota. So if they are now putting the blame on the governor, they must be blamed as well! We have one government, one vision. There is only one issue, so why blame each other?? Reason is politics!

We voters know who to blame. All of them! The governor is being pictured as against the garment industry. I don’t think so. Even if I don’t read his mind, I still think he supports any industry that contributes to the government coffers. But I agree with the governor when he said that the garment industry had three years also to prepare for this so why now blame the governor for something that they already know is going to happen three years back? It is as much the garment industry’s responsibility to prepare for this as the government’s. It is their business in the first place.

When I say government, I mean, the whole government, the executive and legislative branches as well. The least the House could have done is push for an innovative legislation that can help the island when the garment industry pulls out or reduce their operation here and it could have initiated this three years ago. So, Mr. Manglona of the Covenant Party, stop the talk. We read the news, we see what we see, we know who we know. Stop pointing fingers. Use plans, platforms, visions, not hindsight.

Gilbert Pangelinan
San Jose, Saipan