Too much govt interference spoils the broth

What should the government do to keep investments? First, the government should be business-friendly. I would say that this administration is very anti-business. If you just look around, many hotels have changed ownership. Japanese investors are leaving; the latest that we’ve heard of is the planned pullout of Japan Airlines.

I don’t understand why this governor does not understand why JAL is pulling out. I say that’s because of the attitude, the atmosphere that is not favorable to the investors. In general, to be business friendly, we must have positive attitude for business over here.

Second, the government should remove restrictive regulations. Make it easier for the businesses to recruit workers from wherever. For example, the garment workers: the government is telling garment employers to just pick from the unemployed garment workers on island. What policy is that? Probably the reason why some of them are unemployed is that they’re not that good workers. So why would you force the manufacturers to get them?

The way the administration operates is not good. It’s interfering too much. If elected governor again, I’ll take out the Immigration Office from the Office of the Attorney General. To keep it there is unconstitutional. I’ll tell you why. Immigration was originally under AGO but it was during the Trust Territory government. We did not have our own Constitution.

Under the CNMI Constitution, the AGO is mandated to do only three things and one of that is not to handle immigration. The Constitution specifies what the AGO can do and should do. One of them is to be adviser to the governor and the Executive Branch. The other one is to enforce CNMI laws, and the other one is to represent the government in all litigations. The Constitution grants that power to the AGO and only that power. Nothing else. We cannot enact legislation authorizing or transferring, for example, the Division of Agriculture to the AGO. The Constitution does not allow that. The point is that the AGO is interfering too much. Even this entry visas, the AGO has no business doing that.

If an agency decides who can come over here, it’s not good for the business atmosphere here. How can we allow tourists, if they have to get entry visas? Stop the regulations that businesses have to comply with.

There is also a need to stop the labor moratorium. If I’m the governor, there is no moratorium. Look at the garment sector. Recently, the U.S. imposed a quota on garment imports from China. It could have been a big opportunity for the CNMI to take advantage of by increasing production but how can they increase their production if they cannot get more workers because there is a labor moratorium? There is a need to streamline the labor regulations.

Right now, if you’re a business owner and want to bring in new workers, you go to the governor and beg for his blessing for exemptions. If I were the governor, I would even bring a bus to the airport to pick them up.

In my case, if elected, I will repeal all the taxes that the garment industry is paying. In other words, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I will give them tax breaks, and I will remove the user’s fee.

Let’s say the total contribution of the garment industry is $70 million—to be conservative. Say, the user’s fee is $20 million. We’d still have $50 million. The industry needs a break right now to be able to compete.

Going back to JAL issue, there is nothing that the governor can do as far as JAL is concerned between now and the election. Nothing. So I suggest that he stop traveling to Japan every other week. Stop the junket and give it to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.

You see, JAL can’t fly its planes if it’s not full. Revenues are going down because businesses are going out. Recently, the Secretary of Finance admitted that the last time the government paid in full to the Retirement Fund was in 1998. That’s the year I got out as governor. After I left, they didn’t pay the retirement contributions. When I was the governor, the economy was strong. Don’t let anybody get the idea that that was a fluke, that it happened without my effort. I made it happen and I will make it happen again.

On power supply, the governor created the CUC crisis and declared an emergency. There is actually no crisis yet. There’s no need to declare a state of emergency. I say he created the crisis because he didn’t pay the CUC. The government could have just paid the CUC $13 million. Since there’s a legal dispute over the billing, the government could have settled some amount, say $10 million, which could have helped the CUC and reduce the surcharge fee.

When I was governor, I wanted to privatize CUC. The Legislature, in particular Diego Benavente, who was the speaker then, heavily opposed it. Now he says, it’s a gift from a heaven. I believe in privatization because it is good for the community but the Republicans blocked it.

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Froilan Tenorio is a former governor and is the standard bearer of the Democrat Party.