Fitial opens up in video statement

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial yesterday released a video statement where he talks for the first time about the indictment of Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez, the possible end of daily outages, the Government Accountability Office’s report, and federalization litigation option.

The 12-minute video was provided to the media yesterday. It was supposed to be uploaded by the administration over the weekend to the popular video sharing website, YouTube.

The administration is still working on splitting the video since it is two minutes over the YouTube’s 10-minute maximum per video broadcast requirement. Press secretary Charles Reyes Jr. said yesterday the video may be uploaded anytime this week as soon as they’re done working on it.

In the video, Fitial took off with a brief discussion on the indictment of Villagomez and his co-defendants, describing it as “a great personal disappointment” to him.

“I have great sympathy for the families of all those involved. I have appointed Mike Ada as the new Secretary of Commerce,” said Fitial, reading from a prepared statement.

The chief executive expressed respect for the efforts of the federal law enforcement officials involved in the investigation of the case.

“I look forward to a speedy resolution of the matter in court,” he said.

CUC updates

On the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s problems, the governor said that when he asked Tony Muña to take charge of the utility agency, Muña “inherited a mess.”

“I have confidence in his ability to look at the current problems and address them in an orderly and thoughtful manner,” he said.

Fitial said there are no quick fixes as the problems with CUC have been accumulating over the years.

“Now my administration bears the brunt of the outages, the high bills, and the difficult repairs that are necessary,” he said.

The governor then shifted to the “good news,” disclosing that he just met with representatives of Aggreko International, which is under contract to supply 15 megawatt power to Saipan.

The Aggreko representatives, Fitial said, advised him that the equipment would be ready by Sept. 16, 2008.

Fitial and Muna expect the additional capacity will enable the island to meet peak load demands on CUC, resulting in outages coming to an end next month.

The chief executive also mentioned his talks with Senate President Pete Reyes and House Speaker Arnold Palacios about the two officials’ recent trip to Washington.

He said he appreciates the personal effort that Reyes and Palacios made to present the CNMI’s energy needs to a wide range of federal officials.

“Let me be clear on one point here: The Legislature and my administration speak with a single voice regarding the needs of our people. We are hopeful that the Interior Department will be able to help us,” Fitial said.

In addition, the governor said, he had discussed the matter with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William D. French, who is the commander of the Naval Forces Marianas.

He said French has offered to provide Navy expertise to help the CNMI in evaluating and addressing its energy needs.

GAO report

Fitial said he received a draft of the GAO report in June and was very disappointed with its analysis and conclusions.

He said he was unable to discuss the report in public because GAO asked them not to do so until the report was released in its final version on Aug. 4.

Fitial reiterated his administration’s position that they do not object to the application of the federalization immigration laws aimed at protecting the nation’s borders and national security.

‘We welcome that. But we do object to the provisions of the law that seek to eliminate over time all foreign workers in our community who cannot meet the very restricted requirements of H visas under federal law,” he said.

Fitial cited that there are about 18,000 guest workers in the CNMI or about two-thirds of the total workforce.

He said only a small percentage of these workers is likely to qualify for H visas, while the others will be allowed to remain in the CNMI only if federal officials give special CNMI-only permits to individual employers allowing them to hire foreign workers.

Fitial pointed out that the law requires that the number of these special permits be reduced to zero by the end of 2014, unless the U.S. Labor Secretary grants an extension of the so-called transition period.

He said Congress clearly did not listen when he and others testified when the law was being considered in Congress that reductions of foreign workers would severely damage the CNMI’s economy.

“Although GAO denies doing so, its report confirms our worst expectations regarding the damage we can expect if this law is implemented as written,” he said.

The report, Fitial said, refers to a well-respected book on economics authored by the present chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke.

Bernanke’s book states that a 10 percent reduction in the number of workers in the U.S. might be expected to cause a 7 percent decline in the economy.

“So, for the Commonwealth, a 60-percent reduction in our workforce—over whatever time period—would result in a 42 percent decline in our economy,” Fitial noted.

The governor said investors do not understand why the federal government would destroy a workforce that serves the economy well.

“Why would they make the situation so uncertain and so unwelcoming for foreign investors and foreign workers?” Fitial asked.

He questioned why the federal government would deny visa waivers to tourists from Korea, Russia, or China who want to buy condominiums or timeshares in the CNMI.

“Frankly, I have difficulty in answering these questions,” the governor said.

Fitial disclosed that he gets advice from the Washington law firm that he had hired several weeks ago to look at the litigation alternative.

He said he would be meeting with the Legislature next week to review the options for dealing with the situation.

Fitial hinted that litigation may be the only alternative to challenging the labor provisions of the new federal law.

“This law presents the most serious threat to our right to local self-government that the Commonwealth has ever faced,” he said.

The governor reminded that, to obtain this right to local self-government, local people gave up two-thirds of Tinian; gave up Farallon de Mendenilla where the military does its bombings; and gave up sovereignty as an independent people.

Fitial believes that the agreements contained in the Covenant were a good deal for the CNMI as a people.

“But the right of local self-government was a critically important part of that deal. If we do not defend our right of local self-government now, under these circumstances, we have little hope that Congress will respect this important right in the future,” he said in the last portion of the video.

Fitial promised to report back to the people on the litigation alternative issue after he is done consulting with the Legislature, business leaders, and other people in the community.