‘We must protect what we have now’

Former Senate floor leader Sen. Pete P. Reyes, left, and former lieutenant governor Diego T. Benavente answers questions from reporters after announcing their support of the GOP ticket of incumbent Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Senate President Arnold I. Palacios. (Jon Perez)

As the lieutenant governor back then under former governor Juan N. Babauta, Diego T. Benavente remembers what life was like more than 10 years ago when the CNMI economy went south.

“I was also at fault back then. Include me [among] those who had failed,” Benavente told reporters in Thursday’s news briefing when he and former senator Pete P. Reyes announced their support of the GOP ticket of incumbent Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his running mate Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan).

Reyes is an adviser in the local Republican Party, while Benavente is a GOP national committee member.

Now that the CNMI economy is recovering, Benavente said it is important to protect that recovery and to continue the progress that has been made.

“There’s a lot of things to be said that we have now that we need to protect versus what happened in the past,” he said. “Am I making things up? Am I lying about the things that I’m saying? Of what we experienced and what we went through and the struggles of our people? Now, there’s progress that has been made and we see the improvements in people’s lives.”

Benavente said he was first elected in 1990 when the CNMI budget was only $60 million and saw it increase to $240 million in 1997 when he was the House speaker. The CNMI, however, failed to foresee the future and had no safety net when things become rough.

“Those [1990s] were great years. The mistake that we did was we didn’t save for the rainy day. When the rainy day came, we all suffered. And that to me, if I were to look back, was the biggest mistake I made,” he said.

It is, thus, important for people to remember the struggles back then, he said. “I hope our people won’t forget what was life like more than 10 years ago. For some reason, our people in the CNMI take things for granted and we forget easily. What we’re doing is reminding the people that let’s not take things for granted.”

Reyes, who was in the CNMI Senate during those times, also remembers. “I remember how hard life was that time. The 64-hour work, cutting down employment. Those were hard times. I don’t know anyone in the Commonwealth, including the critics, that ever looked back and see those kinds of difficult times and comparing to what we have right now.”

“You have to be blind not to see that comparison,” Reyes said.

The former senator pointed out that one cannot deny the achievements of the current administration. “I don’t think that somebody would come out and say ‘What he has done?’ He’s done much that’s visible and not hidden that people could question. People can see progress. He wants to prevent any hardship for our people and he has done it.”

Some critics of the administration, Reyes said, point out that a lack of employment even without presenting facts. “But what did this government do? They presented facts and here are the employment records that hire locals to the workforce. All are based on factual data.

Data presented by the administration saw a 27.7-percent increase of U.S. citizens being hired in the workforce.

“When they said there’s a problem with employment, di they present data and facts? It was just…an irresponsible statement. It tends to disrupt the progress that’s being made,” added Reyes.

Former House speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider, who is gunning for one of the two Senate seats for Saipan, said that only 25 percent of the CNMI population felt the local economy improve, leaving 65 percent behind in the poverty line—a claim that Reyes questions.

Saying he respects Hofschneider but questions his allegation. “He’s an intelligent guy. But when he said that, did he present facts? Did he show statistics? I don’t see that and I listened to him on Facebook. I didn’t see any presentation of statistics and data that backs his statement.”

“When the governor comes out, many statistics were presented. These are the statistics in local employment and backed by data. Traceable, factual, and reviewable data.”

He admits that there are still some residents who are unemployed. “Yes, there are still people that are still unemployed or need jobs, but [that’s their] choice. If they want a job, they can get one since there are many job opportunities now.”

Reyes said guest workers are only temporary since the long-term goal is to train locals to enter the workforce. “Why do we need CW workers? Because jobs are not being filled. We don’t need CW workers forever, because we hope that they would train our people to replace them once we have the human resources.”

“That’s why we’re supporting [the Northern Marianas Trades Institute] 100 percent, because they are actually producing workers and these people are getting out and getting employed. Their rate of success is very high. [The Northern Marianas College] is also producing nurses at a very high rate, nurses that pass the [licensure exams] in one take. These are measurable results.”