CNMI marked 48th Covenant Day

The CNMI marked the 48th Covenant Day yesterday, March 24, to celebrate the day when U.S. President Gerald Ford signed the Covenant Agreement that paved the way for the CNMI to enter into a political union with the United States.

In addition to the historic significance of this date, the spirit and the letter of the Covenant are even more important and relevant now, as the CNMI confronts economic hardships, geopolitical tensions, and other challenges, according to a joint statement yesterday by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang.

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Arnold I. Palacios

“We look forward to the conversations being hosted around the Covenant’s significance and its impact on our islands, and encourage the community to engage in the activities that have been organized to commemorate its passage,” said Palacios and Apatang in their statement.

Negotiated over the course of 27 months by members of the Marianas Political Status Commission, the Covenant underscores principles that protect the safety and well-being of the people, promote community health and welfare, promote free enterprise and the advancement of economic development, promote justice, expand educational opportunities for students, and most importantly, improve the overall standard of living for each individual that calls the islands home, they added.

Palacios and Apatang both urged CNMI residents to reflect on the enduring legacies of the CNMI’s founding fathers and mothers, who forged a robust and strategic partnership that has endured for nearly half a century.

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Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) said the Covenant gave the Commonwealth the right to self-government and the opportunity to decide and revisit matters of mutual interest of both governments.

“It is also through this uniqueness of our relationship that we as the CNMI, in the interest of her people, are able to achieve more as an equal partners in this political relationship,” DeLeon Guerrero said.

Covenant Day is usually described as the day when the islands entered into one of the most unique political relationships in the world, a Commonwealth in political union with the United States. For that reason, Covenant Day is an important day in the CNMI’s history, according to House of Representatives Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan).

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“It is basically the beginning of our Commonwealth as we know today and also defined our relationship with the United States,” Villagomez said.