Members of both legislative chambers described Gov. Benigno R. Fitial\u2019s State of the Commonwealth Address yesterday as an informative and sincere report about the true situation of the CNMI but they saw no major progress in the economic plans he had presented in last year\u2019s SOCA.<\/p>\n
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial focused his one-hour speech on the pros and cons of issues and policies that continue to affect government operations and cripple the battered CNMI economy\u2014from the budget deficit and the utilities corporation, to the federalization of local labor and immigration and the Retirement Fund\u2019s ongoing lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, the governor\u2019s report was good. There was no side-tracking on issues that are not related to the government operation and the CNMI economy. Although the Executive Branch and the Legislature do not always agree on one issue, it was good to hear him recognize the Legislature for some of the progress he noted in the government\u2019s administration,\u201d Senate President Pete Reyes said, adding the report was also \u201cenlightening and informative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Diego Benavente, chairman of the House Committee on Federal Relations, described the presentation as \u201cvery minimal\u201d but really tackled the main issues that Commonwealth people want to hear about.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the presentation was good. He presented the current challenges\u2026and even though it was very minimal, these are the things our people would like to hear on,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Ray Yumul said he heard what he had expected of the governor\u2019s report. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much what I expected\u2014issues about the real and current challenges and the true situation of our economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
House minority leader Rep. Oscar Babauta described the governor\u2019s remarks as \u201cfrank, sincere, and was spoken from the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the criticisms that Fitial faced due to many unpopular decisions, Babauta believes the governor made significant progress on the budget deficit and the power utilities.<\/p>\n
Babauta, along with the Senate President, Yumul and Benavente, said that despite the \u201cgloomy\u201d forecast for the CNMI economy as a result of many issues, the Fitial administration had made significant strides in resolving the massive outages that were experienced last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made progress on our CUC compared to what we experienced in the previous years,\u201d the lawmakers admitted.<\/p>\n
\u2018Lack of plan to deal present challenges\u2019<\/p>\n
Rep. Tina Sablan believes there were some missing parts in the governor\u2019s report to the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected the governor to give us a gloomy forecast of the future, and to blame the Legislature and the federal government for the current challenges we face. I also expected that we would not hear an honest assessment of the shortcomings of this administration, or be presented with a compelling and visionary plan of action. The governor’s address lived up to my expectations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sablan said the address was for the most part the same as last year’s with a few updates on CUC, a more expansive list of justifications for the government\u2019s lawsuit against the federal government, a summary of federal stimulus funds received, and a nod to the people of Rota and Tinian who can expect more homesteads and better corrections facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major challenges haven’t changed, whether it’s CUC, the healthcare system, the Retirement Fund, the budget, the tourism industry, how to move capital improvement projects forward, or how to make the transition to federal immigration law and to a just, rational, and sustainable economy. And sadly, what also hasn’t changed is that there does not seem to be a plan to deal with those challenges,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, for his part, believes that the governor\u2014since deliveringd his report last year\u2014made no significant progress on the many issues facing the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing,\u201d he told reporters when asked about the major accomplishment he thinks were achieved by the governor since last year\u2019s SOCA.<\/p>\n
Like Sablan, Palacios admitted that he had expected the governor to again blame the Legislature.<\/p>\n
He vehemently disagreed with the governor\u2019s argument that federalization was mainly to blame for the downgrading of the CNMI\u2019s rating by credit rating agency Moody’s, saying the failure to pass a government budget and federalization were among the factors cited in the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest with the issues\u2026sit down and work on the possible solutions,\u201d he said, adding this was also why many people are not buying the idea of \u201causterity holidays\u201d as a way to cut expenditure costs in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cAusterity measure is not necessary,\u201d he said, adding that the administration can suspend the budget of unnecessary government activities to cover for the austerity proposal.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not CUC, but Eloy\u2019<\/p>\n
If many lawmakers rated CUC\u2019s progress as the administration\u2019s major accomplishment in this year\u2019s SOCA, a lawmaker from Tinian is not buying the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Eloy [Inos],\u201d Sen. Jude Hofschneider told Saipan Tribune when asked what he thinks is the major achievements of the government since last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Fitial] appointed a very respectable guy\u2026a man who can assist him all the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hofschneider described the governor\u2019s report as \u201cvery comprehensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least he\u2019s very much aware of the situation, primarily of the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hofschneider is not convinced that CUC has already achieved \u201ctrue progress,\u201d saying that as long as the Aggreko engines are here and alternative renewable energy for the CNMI remains nonexistent, he can\u2019t agree with the administration\u2019s report on CUC.<\/p>\n
Sen. Maria Frica Pangelinan also expressed dissatisfaction with the governor\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am surprised that the governor even talked about financial reports in 2006 and 2007 when we\u2019re already in 2009,\u201d she told Saipan Tribun.<\/p>\n
She also disagreed with the many issues and points Fitial raised about federalization, Moody\u2019s decision to downgrade the CNMI\u2019s debt rating, and the Retirement Fund.<\/p>\n
She said the governor raised the same issues he presented in last year\u2019s report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of both legislative chambers described Gov. Benigno R. Fitial\u2019s State of the Commonwealth Address yesterday as an informative and sincere report about the true situation of the CNMI but they saw no major progress in the economic plans he had presented in last year\u2019s SOCA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}