2010 to 2019: A look back at the ’10s

Super Typhoon Yutu clobbered the CNMI near the end of 2018. The Coral Ocean Point is one of the hotels in the CNMI that is considered to have sustained the most damage. (Ferdie De La Torre)

2010
• Partial government shutdown and payless paydays.
• Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) is reelected in a sweeping victory.
• The Palms Resort closes two years after it took over Hotel Nikko in February 2008.
• Qingmei Cheng, a 28-year old masseuse who was detained in Susupe on federal charges of trying to sneak into Guam, ignites a political firestorm after it was revealed that she was temporarily released from her cell to provide massage therapy to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial during the early morning hours of Jan. 8.

2011
• From work hour cuts to joblessness, shrinking consumer base, high cost of living, and even delayed release of tax rebate and scholarship checks—almost everything that went wrong boiled down to a single factor: the dismal economy.
• The mysterious disappearance of the Luhk sisters—Faloma and Maleina—near their residence in As Teo on May 25.
• Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona sworn in as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the NMI for a 10-year term.
• Rep. Raymond Palacios (Cov-Saipan) was arrested on ice-trafficking charges.

2012
• Arctic Circle Air launches cargo services.
• More China and Russian flights arrive. Tourists were welcomed aboard China Eastern Airlines and AviaCharter DV.
• E-Land Group, through its subsidiary E-Land Park, bought Palms Resort Saipan for $20 million from United Micronesia Development Association. The real estate company also became the majority owner of Coral Ocean Point and purchased stocks of Pacific Island Club Saipan.
• Saipan Grand Hotel was rebranded as Kanoa Resort Saipan.

2013
• Gov. Benigno R. Fitial resigns on Feb. 20, 2013, days after the House of Representatives impeached him on charges of corruption, felony, and neglect of duty.
• Three die in Star Marianas plane crash—pilot Luis Silva and two Chinese tourists, a 29-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman.
• CNMI community pitches in to help Haiyan victims in the Philippines
• Conviction of Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu for smuggling endangered fruit bats from Rota to Saipan.

2014
• CNMI government and Best Sunshine International Ltd. ink $7.1-billion casino development agreement.
• Gov. Eloy S. Inos and then-Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres top the general elections.

• A police officer fatally shoots his former girlfriend with his service firearm and then himself.
• Bench trial of former attorney general Edward T. Buckingham in Superior Court. He was found guilty of all public corruption charges except one and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, all suspended.
• The jury trial of Joseph A. Crisostomo over the kidnapping, rape, killing, and robbing of bartender Emerita R. Romero began on April 7.
• Chinatsu and Natsuki Yamasa disappear in Marpi on June 30. Their car rental was recovered at Wing Beach.
• Rota Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu sentenced to 41-month prison term for conspiring to violate the Endangered Species Act.
• Best Sunshine gives the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. $10 million, allowing CUC to distribute $635.71 worth of vouchers to CNMI residential accounts in early October.

2015
• From what was forecasted as a Category 2, Typhoon Soudelor later turned out to be a ferocious Category 4 cyclone, with overwater wind intensity of 130 miles per hour and peak gust of 165 mph.
• Gov. Eloy S. Inos dies. He was 66 years old.
• Former governor Benigno R. Fitial pleads guilty to misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit theft of services.
• Best Sunshine International, Ltd. launched Saipan’s first and only live-gaming casino on Nov. 28.
• The Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino closes its doors on Aug. 14.
• Department of Public Lands opens bid for Mariana Resort lot; resort assigned lease to Best Sunshine.

2016
• Lack of manpower continues to hound the CNMI,.
• Imperial Pacific International Holdings, the lone casino licensee on Saipan, is thrust into the spotlight after an article on Bloomberg claimed that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is looking into its casino operations.
• The CNMI had a mid-term election in November; Republican Party candidates dominated the polls.
• Japanese investor Takahisa Yamamoto sues Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog and the owners/ operators of Luta Mermaid LLC, that owns the M/V Luta for allegedly refusing to pay back the $3.4 million that he put up for the vessel.

2017
• A total of 3,000 slots are removed from the CNMI-only Transitional Worker Program, or the CW-1 program, for fiscal year 2018. The numerical limit for the CW-1 program is set at 9,998, down from 12,998.
• Sen Sun, an alleged overstaying tourist, is indicted for operating a birth tourism business on Saipan.
• Three Filipino workers are killed inside a sewer lift station of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. in San Antonio on July 7.
• Construction workers stage protests over the lack of payment of contractors hired by Imperial Pacific International LLC.
• The Public School System’s Board of Education sacks Education commissioner Cynthia I. Deleon Guerrero.

2018
• Super Typhoon Yutu and Typhoon Mangkhut hit the CNMI in the latter part of this year.
• Several Public School System campuses sustained damage from Super Typhoon Yutu, including the Francisco M. Sablan Middle School, Hop-wood Middle School, Oleai Elementary School, and Marianas High School. The Northern Marianas College also sustained heavy • damage, causing it to cancel classes for over a month since the typhoon.
• Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Senate President Arnold I. Palacios of the Republican Party win the Nov. 13 general election for governor and lieutenant governor.
• The CNMI legalizes the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana on Sept. 21.
• U.S. President Donald Trump extends the CW program by 10 more years on July 25, 2018.
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services terminates the humanitarian parole of close to 2,000 workers.
• A federal grand jury indicted Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig in federal court in September on fraud charges.
• TanHoldings Corp., together with its charitable arm, the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, pledged to donate $1 million to recovery efforts in the CNMI.
• Delta Air Lines, ends its service to Saipan and Palau last May 6, 2018.
• The CNMI economy grew by 25.1% in 2017 based on the gross domestic product estimates released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

2019
• On Nov. 7, 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed several search warrants on the Governor’s Office; Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ house; an office of casino operator Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC; the office of Alfred Yue of Marianas • • • Consultancy Services LLC, a consultant for the casino; Legend Realty Saipan; and the Torres Brothers’ law office, to look for evidence of possible fraud, money laundering, and other federal violations.
• A Skymark Airlines Inc. Boeing 737-800 plane carrying 177 passengers touched down at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport last Nov. 29 for its inaugural non-stop daily regular direct flight from Tokyo to Japan.
• Twenty-two-year-old Akiyama Eiki drowned on Bird Island on Jan. 1, 2019. On Jan. 4, Aurelio del Prado, 74, died after being hit by a car as he was crossing the street across Joeten Dandan. On Oct. 26, a car drove off Banzai Cliff; a body has yet to be found. A car collision on Dec. 16, killed Sergio Apostol, who later succumbed at the hospital to multiple injuries.
• On March 23, police found a decomposing body in Kagman. On April 5, a dead man is found under a concrete bench in Chalan Kanoa’s district 4. On May 13, a man is found dead near Dandan Middle School.
• On May 28, police officers came upon an unconscious Dong Pabalinas along Beach Road. He was later pronounced dead at the Commonwealth Health Center.
• On Aug. 13, an elderly woman was found dead in a home in Finasisu. On Nov. 25, a decomposing body of a still unidentified person was found in the outer cove of Bird Island.
• On Nov. 12, an inmate of the Department of Corrections prison in Susupe was found dead, with unofficial reports claiming that he hung himself.
• On Dec. 13, two women, Li Na Lim, 42, and Linhua Cui, 54, were found dead inside Rice Cake Best Food Restaurant in San Antonio. The women were shot.
• CNMI government mplements a 72-hour bi-weekly work schedule beginning June 23, 2019, as the government prioritized recovery efforts in the wake of Super Typhoon Yutu. It was lifted on Nov. 24, 2019.
• Effective Oct. 3, 2019, the length of time that Chinese tourists are allowed to stay in the CNMI was cut from 45 days to just 14 days instead.
• The Commonwealth Cannabis Commission was created in early September 2019.
• H.R. 559 is enacted on June 26, 2019, providing CNMI-only residence for an estimated 1,039 humanitarian parolees.
• Last Oct. 3, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stopped the entry of Russian tourists to the CNMI and Guam without first obtaining a U.S. visa.
• The Pacific Epidemic and Emerging Disease Alert confirmed the presence of dengue fever in the Marianas in November.