Senator slings back at ex-governor over ‘anti-business’ slant

Senate Floor leader Pete P. Reyes defended the legislature from criticisms by former governor Froilan C. Tenorio over passage of bills viewed as deterrent to doing business in the CNMI, saying lawmakers are trying to correct misdeeds during the previous administration.

While he praised Tenorio for his outspokenness, Reyes said some measures implemented by the former governor resulted to actions which the present administration has been trying to restore to their original status.

“Most of the things that we have passed are responses to most of the screw up he had done,” the senator told in an interview.

Reyes cited an executive order Tenorio signed upon assumption to office in 1994 which revamped the government structure. He said the legislature is still dealing with the reorganization to bring back agencies under their initial department.

“Practically all that he had done under the executive order are being reversed and we have almost completed the process,” Reyes pointed out.

The former governor, who has announced intention to reclaim in 2001 the gubernatorial post he lost in the 1997 elections, has urged members of the legislature to resign for failing to assist the private sector in dealing with the economic slump.

Among the recently-enacted laws Tenorio has alleged to have a negative impact on the investment potential of the CNMI were the mandatory exit of nonresidents from the islands after three consecutive years of work, the indefinite ban on hiring and the continued implementation of the $100,000 security deposit requirement to investors.

The current administration has maintained these steps are necessary to put in place to address concerns over the increasing number of guest workers on the island which has drawn Washington’s ire in recent years.

“His actions to open up the moratorium resulted in thousands and thousands of nonresident workers flooding in and a record number in garment licenses being issued,” Reyes said.

The legislature has also begun to ease the deposit requirement on new investments as the House has passed a legislation seeking several ways on meeting the obligation and the Senate is ready to approve the proposal, he added.

Reyes also blamed the present financial shape of the government to the excesses of the past, noting budget deficits had continued to climb in the last few years due to questionable expenditures.

“If we had not misspent those money, we won’t be in this financial crisis that we are in right now,” he said. “He had camouflaged (the economic crisis) with all the spending that he has done. The crisis was there but rather than addressing the crisis, what he did was that he accumulated the deficit that it continued to grow.”

But he credited the ex-leader for his unique way of responding to controversies, saying “he had guts that I admire (because) I feel at times that we have to stand up to the federal government and tell them what we think. He was able to do that.”

Reyes added: “He has every right to express his opinion, but as an elected official dealing with the kind of painful process that we have to go through to undergo balancing of budget, he doesn’t know that.”