FLASHBACK – July 1, 2011

CUC tasked to regulate prepaid phone cards[/B]

The Senate yesterday set the initial step in clamping down on illegal prepaid telephone service providers in the CNMI with the passage of a proposed law that will regulate the sector and protect the public from fraudulent businessmen on the island. Senate President Paul A. Manglona and Sen. Juan P. Tenorio co-sponsored the bill authorizing the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation to promulgate rules and regulations governing the operations of prepaid phone cards here.

The Marianas Visitors Authority is set to meet with the powerful House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the possibility of providing additional funding for the tourism office after the Office of Management and Budget capped its FY 2000 budget to $5.8 million. MVA Managing Director Perry John Tenorio said the meeting will be held after Rep. Karl T. Reyes, chair of the committee, sent a letter asking the tourism agency if it was seeking any changes in its budget before he submits a final draft of next year’s spending package for deliberation in the House of Representatives. The budget for FY 2000 must be passed before September 30, 1999.

Fund board terms expiring[/B]

The terms of three Board of Trustees members of the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund are set to expire this month and the Fund is urging Gov. Juan N. Babauta to immediately act on the matter to ensure a quorum, so the Board can continue conducting business. This comes even as the Board member seat reserved for the Tinian representative continues to be vacant. Former Tinian member Lenny Diaz was not reappointed to the Board after his courtesy resignation in January. Fund legal counsel Kathleen Troy-Rucker said that Board Chair Vicente Camacho’s term will expire on July 9, concurrent with that of newly appointed member David Hokin, who was appointed to complete the rest of the term of former Board member Charles Reyes. The term of Rota Board member Rosita Santos is also set to expire on July 31.

Members of the California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church unanimously passed a resolution during its session in Redlands, California last June 18-23, 2002 endorsing the delegate status of the CNMI in the United States Congress. Mt. Carmel School social studies teacher Raimon Lehman, Jr. and Pastor Jaime R. Vergara represented Saipan Immanuel United Methodist Church in the conference. They joined delegates from all United Methodist local churches in Southern California, Hawaii and Guam. Gov. Juan N. Babauta, in his letter of greetings to the presiding Bishop, Rev. Mary Ann Swenson of the Los Angeles Episcopal Area, and the Conference delegates, said: “I am delighted to know that through your own legislative process, we might be in common cause in promoting the right of our people to due representation in the United States Congress.”

NMC board lukewarm on exit exam[/B]

Members of the Northern Marianas College board of regents showed no eagerness to begin an exit examination of graduating students, a proposal floated earlier by NMC president Kenneth Wright. Board member Galvin Deleon Guerrero said he sees no urgency to implement the program for new enrollees this fall as proposed. “I don’t think we have to identify a target group this fall. There’s no need to do it right away,” he said, noting that graduates are expected anyway to have acquired the necessary skills, particularly in writing.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta thumbed down last week the local bill that sought to name five public buildings after prominent CNMI figures. In disapproving House Local Bill 13-6, the chief executive cited existing public laws that the local measure proposes to amend, which, he said, cannot be done. “The intent of the bill is laudable and [it is] fitting to honor and recognize our public servants who contributed their untiring and diligent efforts in shaping and developing the Commonwealth by naming public buildings after them. However, “it is clear that a local law cannot amend a public law,” said Babauta in a letter to Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Chairman Pete P. Reyes and House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider.