Dear Editor:

The article that appeared in the other paper last Friday from Ken Govendo regarding Senator Pete P. Reyes is a continuing diatribe of a madman and a wandering soul.

To him, anyone who advocates job creation and revenue generating activities to maintain vital public services like pubic health, public safety, and the education of our children is a “garment loving” individvaL Such accusations and generalizations border on criminal behavior.

Every time Ken Govendo and his cohorts raised their concerns about the diminishing control of the local people in local political and economic opportunities, they demonstrate their inherent prejudices against the very people that U.S Congressman Miller and others. presumably look after.

In the interest of helping the people af the .Commonwealth, I ask Ken Govendo to please consider the following:
1. For once in your life stop complaining and start suggesting how we can deal with the rapidly increasing demands for more public services while our fiscal resources is on a serious decline.
2. Assist the Commonwealth in dealing with the substantial costs incurred by the CNMI in providing public services to citizens of the FSM caused by the U.S. Govemment’s unfunded federal mandates.
3. If the CNMI is really such as bad place, why haven’t you boarded the next plane out?
4. Have you ever considered if the federal government has other ulterior motives for federalizing the CNMI such as making our homes into a federal govemment outpost and that you naively and perfectly fit into their grand scheme? Events occurring in China and North Korea are frightening and the CNMI is still strategically important for military and other clandestine purposes whether you know it or not.
5. Why is Congressman Miller and cohorts so concem about the large numbers of non-resident workers (non-US citizens) living in the CNMI without any local political representation when the CNMI people (US citizens) are blatantly denied the right to participate in the American political process? If the Commonwealth is truly a part of the U.S. where citizens are protected and treated equally under the US. Constitution, then why have they forgotten that CNMI indigenous people have been completely denied the basic rights granted other citizens in a democratic govemment? As you know, we have been discriminated by the U.S. govemment and denied the following basic rights:

We have been denied the right to vote for the U.S. President. We have been denied the right to be represented in the U.S. Congress. We are denied the right to elect our own Senators and Congressman to represent us at our nation’s capitol. All fifty states have two elected senators. In addition, all other states and territories have access to the U.S. House of Representatives, either through full representation or through the nonvoting delegate status except the CNMI.

If Congressman Miner and their labor union cohorts are so concem about the “indentured servants” in this so-called U.S. soil, why have they continued to look the other way when dealing with the indigenous people of the Commonwealth? Would a personal matter be his motivation. I heard Miller’s wife is a Filipina, is this true?
Could that be his motivating force to look after their kabayans? I hope not.

Let’s make a deal, if we agree to federalize the Commonwealth (from A to Z), is your friend Miller and his colleagues willing to allow the CNMI people to participate in the election for the U.S. President, allow us to elect two Senators to me U.S. Senate and at least one Congressman to the U.S. House of Representatives? If they are not agreeable to granting us these basic rights, then they have absolutely no legitimate rights to continue their tirade about the CNMI’s deprivation of the guest workers’ rights to participate in the local political process.

It is easy to complain and that is what Ken Govendo has done for many years now. This perennial pessimistic attitude about 99.999% of the world around him is symptomatic of a very sick mind. This Commonwealth has been great to Govendo and it is time that he wakes up and help us deal with our ongoing economic crisis and continuing lack of representation in the U.S. govemment’s policy-making bodies.

There are several things that I am absolutely sure will not occur if we federalize the Commonwealth: It will not prevent labor abuse. It will not increase the standard of living for the indigenous people. It will not increase employment opportunities. It will hot improve our public safety, public health, or education of our children. It will not stop the U.S. from treating China as one of its most favored trading partner despite repeated and documented human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese government. It will not stop the bombing of our island of Farallon De Medinilla, the CNMl’s most fertile fishing ground. It will not stop the permanent damage to our coral reefs by the U.S. pre-positioning ships anchored in our lagoon. It will not improve nor accomplish what Govendo, Miller and others naively claim it will.

To the contrary, federalizing the Commonwealth’s labor, immigration, and other areas will surely and definitely accomplish the following:

Destroy the CNMl’s economy; create massive unemployment; permanently destroy and damage the social and demographics of the CNMI; increase and promote welfare dependency (food stamps and other federal handouts and subsidies); permanently ruin the Commonwealth

The U.S. Government has sufficiently demonstrated its marvelous ability to selectively create and/or destroy. Unfortunately, there are people like Ken Govendo who have opted to destroy and who have blindly and naively embarked on a joumey of devastation. I suggest that Ken Govendo and his cohorts in Washington listen to some of our friends here and abroad who have the wisdom and the foresight to see beyond the horizon. The Commonwealth should be an example of a “success story” to US taxpayers in that we have reduced our federal dependency and thus reduced the continuing reliance on financial assistance from the US taxpayers.

The Commonwealth is a young nation and still growing and maturing. The journey to economic success, self-reliance, and political autonomy carries their own set of problems one of which run on a collision course with human rights activists. We should be proud, however, that economic success in the CNMI have been built around the rule of law. All of our workers, local and guest workers alike, have full access to the legal system for redress of grievances and for other basic human rights. Historically, these rights were not afforded by the U.S. government to the negro slaves, nor to the Chinese laborers who built the railroad system, nor to the Mexicans and Hispanics and other “indentured laborers” who helped built the Panama Canal.

In closing, please stop insulting the integrity and intelligence of the indigenous people by attacking the credibility of our good Senator. Senator Reyes has been a blessing for the people of the Commonwealth and has contributed immensely for the betterment of the people than you ever will in several life time. I am a proud indigenous Chamorro but I am getting awfully tired of hearing people like Ken Govendo, a guest of the Commonwealth, speak from their pulpits about righteousness. Please get off your pedestals and contribute to this great Commonwealth that have provided you a family, home and a future.

Si Yuus Maase` for the opportunity to share my thoughts.”

Sincerely,
Charles Reyes, Sr.