Legislators divided on 5-year limit

The House of Representatives cut short a session yesterday in apparent attempt to avoid a potential serious conflict among its leaders over the controversial Senate initiative seeking a five-year stay limit on nonresident workers in the Commonwealth.

Members agreed to continue the session today after it appears that the House is divided over the issue. A legislative official said it might not be discussed at all in today’s session.

House Speaker Diego T. Benavente, in an interview the other day, expressed opposition against the initiative offered by Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez, saying he disagreed with placing what he considers a legislative issue in a referendum.

He, however, left the matter to members whether to place it on their agenda. Vice Speaker Jesus T. Attao made the motion to include it for discussion during yesterday’s session.

The House needs to pass the proposal with at least two-thirds votes so it can be included in the balloting during the November midterm elections.

Senate Legislative Initiative 11-5 initially proposed that the five-year employment restriction should be applied to all guest workers in the CNMI, but Villagomez agreed to ease the limitation to cover only those who entered the island on or after March 5, 1999 to win support of the House.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio considered the measure punitive, noting that the Commonwealth will still need foreign manpower to complement the small local labor pool here.

Meanwhile, the House passed only one bill and several resolutions during a session, which was primarily called to tackle all measures sitting in the calendar.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Oscar M. Babauta was a revised version of an earlier legislation vetoed by the governor, which seeks to establish a Division of Parks and Recreation within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to oversee the island’s parks and other sites. It now heads to the Senate for action.

Representatives also adopted a resolution urging the U.S. Senate to ratify an international agreement that will reduce emission of pollutants that effect the earth’s ozone layer.

Initiated by Rep. Manuel A. Tenorio, the resolution would ask Washington to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change to begin its implementation.

The protocol needs to be ratified by the U.S. Senate to reduce the emission of so-called greenhouse gases by at least seven percent below the 1990 levels in the country.