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Ex-governor bolts party for comeback
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Posted on Mar 22 1999
Tired of years of bickerings and disunity within the party, former Governor Froilan C. Tenorio officially resigned as a Democrat to prepare the groundwork for his reelection bid in the year 2001 general elections under a new political party.
A party member since 1979 when he first ran for the Senate, Tenorio wrote to former Mayor Jose Rios, acting chairperson of the Democratic Party, to inform him that he was terminating his membership.
“We were never really united, unified,” Tenorio said in a phone interview. “We are our own worst enemies. We tend to self-destruct that is why the Republicans have been in control for the last 20 years.”
According to Tenorio, lack of loyalty among party members has thrown the Democrats into discord. “The Democratic Party is beyond help. The organization itself is too unmanageable.”
He complained that even when he was governor his partymates in both the Senate and the House of Representatives did not give him full backing on crucial legislations, such as the Foreign Investments Act, which he vetoed because of its adverse impact on the flow of fresh capital into CNMI.
Disharmony in the party, he said, is also largely to be blamed for his defeat in the 1997 three-way gubernatorial race in which Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio won despite eight years of absence from the political arena.
The former governor explained that he is currently organizing a home-grown political party which he will use as a vehicle to reclaim the governorship in 2001.
Tenorio claimed 25 percent of the Democrats and some Republicans will join the reform party he is spearheading for the mid-term elections in November.
But Tenorio said at this time the new party is only prepared to field candidates for the race in the House of Representatives. “We’re are still trying to work out if we can have candidates for the senatorial race. We don’t have candidates yet for Rota and Tinian,” he said.
