U.S. agenda dismays Covenant negotiator

Irked over insistence by the Clinton administration to push a federal takeover agenda, a former Covenant negotiator for the Northern Marianas yesterday warned the CNMI panel holding bilateral talks with White House special emissary Edward B. Cohen against accepting the proposal.

Former lt. governor Pedro A. Tenorio also urged on the eve of the resumption of 902 consultation to cancel any future discussion, saying the meeting could prove to be unproductive “under an atmosphere of hate and suspicion.”

In a letter to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, the local leader said Cohen’s visit will not change the Washington agenda to strip local authority over immigration and minimum wage laws despite provision in the Covenant that ensures mutual agreement.

Cohen, along with four other delegates sent by President Clinton to Saipan, begins discussion today with island officials, led by Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan, in the resumption of the talks last held in 1992. It is expected to cover range of issues, including labor and immigration.

“Such discussions will be aimed at no less than forcing an agreement with the CNMI on a formula to eradicate any future hope for economic self-sufficiency and a further dilution of the self-government provision of our Covenant,” Tenorio told the governor in the letter.

Tenorio was part of the original team that led to the forging with the United States of the Covenant, the landmark agreement that established the commonwealth government and allowed the island to control its immigration and labor policies.

He also headed several 902 consultation talks with Washington representatives during the first two terms of Gov. Tenorio in the 1980s.

But the former negotiator now laments a bent move by federal officials who are pressuring the island government to accept the takeover proposal on the heels of allegations over CNMI’s failure to curb an alien work force that has outnumbered locally-born U.S. citizens.

Tenorio said there is an apparent “conspiracy” between some Washington officials and mainland lobbyists who have “ganged up against the CNMI for a well calculated attack and constant bashing and criticisms.”

He maintained that a recent letter by Clinton to Gov. Tenorio claiming that the local chief executive had agreed to the federalization plan as well as Cohen’s earlier statement that they would only deal with discussion relating to transition to takeover were part of this campaign.

Any amendment to the provisions of Covenant can only be undertaken through legislation in the U.S. Congress and the absence of such legislative authority, Tenorio said, any proposed takeover is inappropriate and without basis.

“The CNMI’s right to continue to exist as a self-governing Commonwealth… will be undermined by allowing the federal visitors the opportunity to prematurely conduct discussions for a federal takeover of our laws,” he said.

“Given the clear motive of the U.S. envoy to practically ram their wish down our throats, such scheduled discussions of issues should be canceled,” Tenorio explained, adding that it will be more productive to tackle ways to improve the Covenant “rather than pointing fingers at each other as to who is more correct and more powerful.”