Open letter to CNMI retirees

Dear fellow CNMI retirees: According to the information I have, the number of us who are retired from the CNMI government and currently receiving a pension from the Retirement Fund is about 3,000. This does not include those who are eligible to retire yet cannot because the Retirement board will not issue their pension. Why? Because the CNMI government has not contributed their employer’s share of payments to the Retirement Fund.

Most, if not all of us retirees, are worried about our future. We are worried because in about three years the Retirement Fund will be completely dried up if the government does not make the payments it should be paying into the Retirement Fund, but has not paid for several years now. According to an article in a local newspaper this week, as of Dec. 31, 2008, the combined total unpaid employer’s contributions from the CNMI government and autonomous agencies were approximately $209 million. And this amount grows larger by the month. With no government payments going into the fund, every pension check we receive reduces the Fund’s financial assets, and those assets are becoming less and less. We are worried because our legislators continue to enact laws that are detrimental to the Fund and have done very little, if anything, to address this grave problem. We are worried because of the poor economic health of the Commonwealth. Finally, we are worried because we do not know what will happen to us retirees in the not very distant future when we no longer receive our biweekly retirement check.

Can you imagine what will happen if in three years none of us retirees receive our pension? What kind of situation will you and I be in? How will we continue supporting ourselves and our families? Who is going to pay for our food, our utilities, our doctor’s bills, our prescription drugs costs, our rentals, our car payments, our payments for health and life insurance, our loan payments, etc.? How will we afford to live? Have we ever thought of that? And if there is no longer a Retirement Fund, does that also mean we will no longer have health insurance or life insurance? With no health insurance, how will be afford the health care we need as we grow older and in greater need of visits to the doctor and hospital? With no health insurance, how will we afford the total cost of prescription drugs so many of us need?

My fellow retirees, there is only one way we can confront our predicament—and that is to become united and to work as a team. United, we can bring about change. United, we can impress upon our elected officials what is rightfully ours and not give up until we obtain what is owed to us. United, we can influence lawmakers to change laws that negatively affect our retirement investment. United, we can make it known that we will not elect officials in the upcoming election who cannot provide us with detailed plans about how they will protect our pension investment. United, we can make it known that we will not re-elect officials who have ignored the problems with the Retirement Fund during their current term in office. United, we can make things happen!

United, we can accomplish almost anything, but if we are divided, our force and power will not be as effective and as strong. We retirees are like a rope. The more individual strands that are bound together to make the rope, the stronger the rope becomes. A rope with only a few strands can easily break. But if we retirees are bound together, we can overcome anything! As the common expression and song puts it, “United we stand, divided we fall.” That, fellow retirees, must be our theme!

United, the 3,000 of us have enormous power. Let us use it to our advantage, especially during this upcoming election season. Let us pledge to ask every candidate seeking office how they will address our problem and ensure that the Retirement Fund will once again become financially healthy so that we continue to receive our pension checks and enjoy our senior years.