Chamorro Conference and the political debate

It was an honor to have been a part of the panel for Tetsit Konferesian Chamorro. Our appreciation goes out to the organizers of such a conference, especially to Mr. Daniel Quitugua and many others involved. The one thing that we would like to point is that this conference was supposedly a gathering to discuss issues such the protection of our language and culture. Instead it ended in political debates concerning current issues with the federal government. We disagree that the adviser for the indigenous group, Mr. Scott Rasa, seized the moment to address the waste of time the lawsuit that the administration had imposed against the federal government. We were prepared to respond and in doing so a question was posed by a supporter of the lawsuit and a close constituent of former congresswoman Malua Peter. Mrs.Bernadita Dungca of UOG Guam aggressively raised the question who Taotao Tano was representing. Which led to a heated and immature and disrespectful response by Peter, a close relative of a former colleague, Governor Fitial.

This is a question only this administration would raise against Taotao Tano for they are ignorant and wrong to file such a lawsuit. We must remember that for over two decades our government had control over Labor and Immigration and they failed tremendously, inflicting such failure upon the U.S. citizens of the Commonwealth. The U.S. government has since been keeping track of all these Labor and Immigration issues and it would a shame and a huge embarrassment should the Fitial administration lose in court, instilling more harm to our people and the CNMI. The proponents of this lawsuit against the federal government need to grow up, for they were a minority back then when the people of the Commonwealth opted to become U.S. citizens by 78 percent.

The other issue is that the administration’s special legal counsel, Mr. Howard Willens, knew for over 25 years that the Covenant had some provisions that are challengeable in court but did nothing until U.S. Congress passed a law mandating control over our Immigration and Labor system. The federal government’s evidence against our government on this matter is substantiated and the proponents behind the lawsuit will give the CNMI a huge black eye for they do not stand a chance of winning such an embarrassing lawsuit.

Kudos to all the organization from Guam that attended and best of luck to all of them.