Flashback – Nov. 9, 1999-2001

Deficit hits $80M million in FY 98[/B]

CNMI’s cumulative deficit ballooned to more than $80 million by the end of fiscal year 1998, up by about $23 million from previous record, according to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio.

He said the deficit would have been bigger had his administration not put in place cost-cutting measures that had drastically reduced government expenditures since assuming office in January 1998.

Tenorio attributed the increase to outstanding accounts left behind by his predecessor which his administration had to pay back.

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation yesterday agreed to reconsider the initial plan on the controversial Saipan power plant, a move that has drew protests from bidders who feared that it would further push back the project.

Board directors voted to expand the services of independent experts to include an evaluation on the current and future power supply needs on the island and a feasibility study on the proposed 80-megawatt plant.

The government-owned utility firm will spend another $45,000 for the services on top of close to $100,000 paid to Burns & McDonnell when it undertook a nine-month reevaluation of various offers submitted for the project.
[B] November 9, 2000

Teno, Filipino community bag RP Presidential Awards[/B]

His commitment to promote the well-being and uplift the conditions of some 20,000 Filipino workers in the Northern Marianas earned for CNMI Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio the coveted Year 2000 Philippine Presidential Banaag Awards.

The Presidential Awards is a biennial worldwide search for Filipino individuals and organizations, as well as foreign individuals, whose works have given form and substance to Filipino excellence and time honored-values of pakikipag-kapwa (brotherhood), pagtutulungan (cooperation), and pagkakaisa (unity).

The CNMI-based Filipino community, consisting businessman Rodrigo Ceron, the Marianas Association of Filipino Engineers and Architects, the Marianas Association of Filipino CPA, VizMinda, and the L & T Group of Companies on Saipan, collectively won the Presidential Kaakabay ng Bayan Award.

In what may be a prelude to power rate hike in the next few months, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will commission a study to reassess the impact to its operations of the rising fuel costs and ever increasing number of delinquent customers.

CUC directors are expected to give their go-signal in hiring experts to conduct the review during a scheduled board meeting today.

But Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez said there is no firm plan yet on rate increases as the study could take for a while before coming up with its findings.

Woman sustain rashes from suspecious mail[/B]

At least 40 persons at a Garapan hospital underwent a decontamination process — an immediate medical aid to anthrax — after a woman went inside the hospital for sustaining rashes on her hands upon opening a suspicious mail containing a white, powdery susbtance.

As this developed, the FBI came into the picture, as agents joined local emergency response units in the second anthrax scare in the CNMI.

But while some of the victims were being treated at the left-most corner of the parking lot fronting the Pacific Medical Center, another woman told the Saipan Tribune that she, too, received a package with a white, powdery substance last Saturday. The package allegedly came from California.

“We sealed off the building, we evacuated everybody, secured them in one area so they don’t spread anything if that’s anything,” said Jack Diaz, Hazardous Material Officer of the Emergency Management Office.