Senate agenda
Senators yesterday voted on several legislation, including the bill on capital improvement projects, but the legislative initiative seeking a referendum on five-year stay limit on foreign workers in the CNMI got overwhelming support. (See related story)
Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez, sponsor of Legislative Initiative 11-5, urged his colleagues to pass the measure to allow voters to decide on the issue during the November midterm elections.
He challenged the Senate against killing the initiative, saying it would “bring the INS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service) and run our immigration here.”
“What do we want here? Continuously bring nonresident workers,” Villagomez asked.
While the initiative will still have to be passed by the lower house before it is included in the ballot for referendum in the forthcoming election, its passage came immediately after Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio signed into law the three-year stay limit for guest workers in the CNMI.
Business leaders had opposed the proposal mandating a six-month exit for alien workers before they are allowed to return, but the governor maintained it would encourage the island to tap the local labor pool.
Villagomez underlined the difference of his initiative during the two-hour Senate session yesterday, saying if the people agree on it, it will be part of the constitutional provision and cannot be repealed unlike the new law.
SLI 11-5 seeks to disbar any guest worker from returning for employment in the CNMI after an aggregate of five years from the date of entry.
The move is an attempt to curb the number of migrant workers on the island, particularly from impoverished Asian countries, whose continuous influx in recent years has drawn the ire of federal government and prompted the White House to press takeover of CNMI labor and immigration.
Aside from HB 11-380 and SLI 11-5, the following legislation were also voted unanimously:
•SB 11-117, requiring diving shop to hire at least one resident worker as instructor (for House action);
•SB 11-118, giving members of the judiciary the right to waive their salary and instead receive their retirement benefits as set forth under Public Law 10-88 (for House action);
•HB 11-178, or the Environmental Health and Sanitation Act (for House action on Senate amendment);
•HB 11-336, increasing penalty for selling to and using tobacco products by minors as well as requiring license for establishments for selling these products and giving enforcement powers to the commerce, public safety and public health departments (for governor’s consideration); and
•a Senate resolution urging the Attorney General to refrain from settlement and aggressively litigate and the defend the CNMI against motion for judgment filed by Coccio and Stump.
