The Natural Resources Committee\u2019s unanimous consent to send Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan\u2019s bill recommending a CNMI-only resident status for four groups of people to the full U.S. House of Representatives is a welcome development for the Philippine Consulate General.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy that the bill is moving forward. We hope it will get approved very soon but Kilili already noted that it will take time and that it will not become law by Nov. 27,\u201d Consul General Medardo Macaraig said yesterday.<\/p>\n
H.R. 1466 would allow persons born in the Northern Marianas between 1974 and 1978, persons given permanent resident status under CNMI law, and their family members to continue to live and work in the Marianas. The bill also permits immediate family members of U.S. citizens to remain in the Marianas until they can adjust their status under U.S. immigration law.<\/p>\n
Macaraig disclosed that there was a \u201cmisconception\u201d among some members of the Filipino community that Sablan\u2019s bill is \u201calready with the U.S. Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n
H.R. 1466 still has to be passed by the full U.S. House of Representatives and then by the U.S. Senate before it gets to President Barack Obama for action.<\/p>\n
Although many Filipinos will benefit from Sablan\u2019s bill should it become law, Macaraig urged all Filipinos, especially those falling under any of the four groups in HR 1466, to \u201cprepare for two eventualities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the bill becomes law, then thank you. But we should also be prepared if the bill is not passed by the U.S. Congress. Even if it is enacted into law, if it won\u2019t be timely, we have to be prepared,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune. <\/p>\n
Labor representative Carmelina Velasquez, in a separate interview, is pleased that Sablan \u201cwas able to address the concerns\u201d of the four different groups taken into consideration in his bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re happy with this development, let us not forget that what is important is for these groups to still have jobs so that they don\u2019t have to rely on this bill alone,\u201d added Velasquez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Natural Resources Committee\u2019s unanimous consent to send Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan\u2019s bill recommending a CNMI-only resident status for four groups of people to the full U.S. House of Representatives is a welcome development for the Philippine Consulate General.<\/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-155678","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\/155678","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=155678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}