Instead of forming a $100,000 commission to find out whether people still want to maintain the CNMI\u2019s political relationship with the United States under the Covenant, \u201cwhy not ask the voters directly through an initiative and move from there?\u201d according to Rep. Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing it backwards,\u201d Sablan told Saipan Tribune yesterday.<\/p>\n
If most voters are satisfied with the CNMI-U.S. relationship, \u201cthen we give it a rest.\u201d <\/p>\n
This saves the CNMI time, effort, and what Sablan describes as a \u201cconservative\u201d amount of $100,000 to fund a commission and hire people for the commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf most of the voters are not satisfied, then that\u2019s the time you create a commission to see what kind of other relationship they want,\u201d Sablan added.<\/p>\n
Sablan, a former CNMI immigration director, was one of only three House members who voted against the bill creating a Second Marianas Political Status Commission that would examine \u201cwhether the people desire continuing in a political union\u201d with the U.S. under the Covenant signed almost 38 years ago.<\/p>\n
The other two were Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) and vice speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n
Gov. Eloy S. Inos had cautioned against a \u201cshotgun approach\u201d to raising issues with the United States over immigration and military plans to use more islands for live-fire training, saying that changing the CNMI\u2019s political relationship with the most powerful country in the world is \u201ca long shot.\u201d <\/p>\n
The governor instead suggests that Covenant Section 902 negotiation is the right way to go about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in for the long haul,\u201d Inos said of the relationship between the CNMI and the United States, although he acknowledges some members of the Legislature and some community members\u2019 \u201cfrustrations\u201d with the U.S. But he said the CNMI needs to be \u201csmarter\u201d in approaching the issues.<\/p>\n
The political status commission bill is now with the CNMI Senate.<\/p>\n
Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) separately said yesterday that the bill will undergo committee review first. <\/p>\n
No action on the bill is expected in the next Senate session unless a committee report is completed before then.<\/p>\n
On March 24 this year, the Northern Marianas will mark its 38-year political relationship with the United States. U.S. President Gerald Ford signed on March 24, 1976, a joint congressional resolution approving a mutually negotiated \u201cCovenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n
That paved the way for Northern Marianas residents to become U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Instead of forming a $100,000 commission to find out whether people still want to maintain the CNMI\u2019s political relationship with the United States under the Covenant, \u201cwhy not ask the voters directly through an initiative and move from there?\u201d according to Rep. Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan).<\/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-174930","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\/174930","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=174930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}