Clarification

In “Babauta, Lang to face off” (Oct. 12), NMC organizers declared that Gov. Juan N. Babauta and I would meet in a debate in support of the presidential candidates in the U.S. mainland upcoming election. I regret to inform the college students that I could not participate. I was never contacted about it, and I would have told the organizers to look for somebody else to take my place.

I am a CNMI Democrat but I believe in the principles of the U.S. Republican Party, so it would be hard for me to speak in support of the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Not that it matters because we can’t vote anyway, but if we could, I would be voting for President Bush. At any rate, our Democratic Party is not affiliated with the National Democratic Party, and I would like to keep it that way. However, as chairman of the NMI Democratic Party, I am recommending to the organizers to tap Senator Crisostimo to represent the Democrats in my place in the debate.

As many NMI residents know, when I was governor, it was the U.S. Republicans who were helping my administration and the CNMI, as we were under constant attack from the Clinton administration and several ranking Democrats in both houses of the U.S. Congress. With the help of the Republicans in Washington, we managed to keep our control of immigration and minimum wage.

The NMI Democratic Party is really more in tune with the mainland Republican Party; we are pro-business just like the mainland Republican Party. The local Republican Party headed by Governor Babauta is anti-business, just like the mainland Democratic Party. Another glaring contrast between the two Republican Parties is that the local Republican Party believes in getting the government involved in strictly business affairs, such as Babauta’s interference in the Verizon fiasco; the National Republican Party would have encouraged the sale of Verizon expeditiously with no strings attached.

The public is also well aware that Babauta’s friends in Washington are all Democrats: President Clinton, Sen. Kennedy, Sen. Inouye and Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, Rep. George Miller of California, former delegate Robert Underwood of Guam, among others. But recently, through the governor’s efforts, the local Republican Party became affiliated with the National Republican Party, after all these years of the governor being an ally of the National Democratic Party. It is for this reason that Governor Babauta is obliged to support the reelection of President Bush this year.

The bottom line is that Governor Babauta and I are on the same side on the presidential election, and for this reason, I can’t debate with him; Mr. Babauta is supporting President Bush because of political party affiliation, while I am supporting President Bush on a matter of principles; the National Republican Party has been a staunch friend of the Commonwealth since President Nixon authorized the negotiation that culminated in our Commonwealth status. We need a Republican in the White House: President George W. Bush should be re-elected.

Froilan C. Tenorio
Dandan