We’re no laid-back

In his Feb. 11 column entitled “The US Senate fiasco,” Charles P. Reyes, Jr. took the CNMI Government to task for what he called “laid-back, nice-guy finishes last approach” that had resulted in the U.S. Senate passing the federal takeover legislation by unanimous consent. Mr. Reyes further stated that when Gov. Froilan C.
Tenorio was in office, CNMI officials were talking to “those people’ and that positive press coverage from the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal came, as a result of those communications.

Mr. Reyes failed to acknowledge that the federal takeover attempt began during the Republican Reagan Administration in 1986 and has continued all the way until the current Democratic administration. The takeover attempt really intensified during Froilan C. Tenorio’s administration, when Rep. George Miller began his vicious assault on the CNMI because Froilan went back on his promises of labor reform. I guess Froilan changed his mind. That has really hurt the CNMI. The Department of the Interior subsequently joined Rep. Miller.

Yes, the Administration of Froilan C. Tenorio began lobbying efforts by hiring Preston Gates, for millions of dollars. At CNMI expense, many U.S. Congressional staffers and a few congressmen were flown in. And “what the hell happened?” This is what happened:

1. The CNMI Government went nearly bankrupt.

2. Because of those lobbying efforts, some of our friends in the U.S. Senate turned against us.

3. Sen. Frank Murkowski and Sen. Dan Akaka personally came to Saipan to see for themselves the state of our labor and immigration.

4. What stuck in their minds about that visit resulted in them refusing to even consider our reform efforts during the past two years.

5. As late as last week, when the CNMI came under attack in the U.S. Senate during deliberations on the takeover bill, Senators Murkowski and Akaka were still using data collected more than four years ago.

6. Our vigorous two-year reform effort was not enough to change the two senators’ minds, because of what they saw when they came to Saipan.

What this administration did was to pass legislation to reform our labor and immigration laws. We conducted surprise inspections at garment factories, barracks, construction companies, and other businesses and did what was supposed to have been done by the previous administration. We informed the Federal Government and the U.S.
Congress about our effort. They chose to ignore them. We were up against the Office of Insular Affairs which began an orchestrated attack on us with some of the most powerful U.S. media. We protested the Department of Interior’s outdated data in its report to the U.S. Congress. We submitted our own report in response to theirs.
We even sent copies to the same U.S. media outlets that had been attacking us. They have refused to listen because of past promises that did not happen because someone changed his mind.

The last administration decided to play politics with the “big leagues” of the U.S. Congress. They tried to pit the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate against each other and, consequently, we lost friends from both parties.

This administration began immediate reforms to thwart a federal takeover as soon as we came in. We developed position papers, policies, laws, and we are making headway in our relationship with the Federal Government. But the damage has already been done by the Froilan C. Tenorio-Jesse C. Borja Administration.

In spite of the passage of the takeover legislation in the Senate, we, will continue with our reform efforts. We are pursuing the correct actions. They have not prevailed so far because we have to undo four years of mistakes of the Froilan Tenorio-Jesse Borja Administration. However, we do feel that our plan of genuine labor reform, improved regulations and policies, fair treatment, elimination of abuse and providing facts documenting our efforts will prevail.

Frank S. Rosario

Governor’s Press Secretary