Fitial says federalization lawsuit is for the people

Lawmakers should support the administration’s lawsuit against the federalization law as it is for the benefit of the people of the CNMI, according to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial yesterday.

Fitial told reporters that he believes that lawmakers owe it to the people to support the lawsuit and defend the rights of local people.

“People [have] to understand that the lawsuit is basically asking the court to clarify the issue with respect to labor,” he said.

The governor said his administration understands that the Covenant authorizes the federal government to extend the federal immigration law to the CNMI. But the Covenant, he said, does not authorize the federal government to regulate internal labor.

Fitial said if Rep. Diego Benavente is running for governor, then that’s enough reason for the lawmaker to support the lawsuit.

“It will be the local people who will be voting for the governor, not the federal government,” he pointed out.

Fitial said he would ask people to remind lawmakers that they voted for them.

“They [people] elected them [lawmakers] to serve the people’s interest, not their own,” he said.

Fitial said if the lawsuit can’t be funded using public money, he would borrow the money and pay for it himself.

When a reporter asked from whom he will borrow money from, the smiling governor quickly replied, “From you.”

“I owe it to my people. They elected me and they expect me to perform,” he added.

Benavente earlier voiced out that CNMI should engage in a dialogue with the federal government instead of pursuing an expensive but uncertain lawsuit against the federalization law.

“We don’t have the money to spend on this,” said Benavente, referring to the lawsuit that, according to Fitial’s special legal counsel, Howard Willens, would cost $50,000 monthly or about $400,000 covering an eight-month period.

“We knock on their doors and come in and present our views,” said Benavente, who is chairman of the House’s Committee on U.S. and Foreign Relations.

Willens earlier pointed to Section 105 of the Covenant that forbids the U.S. from abrogating the Commonwealth’s right to local self-government without its consent.

“One of the necessary incidents of the right of local self-government is the right to regulate internal labor and economic affairs and to secure the economic prosperity of local residents,” Willens said.