Slow-paced reforms blamed for CNMI’s image problem

The Northern Marianas is slowly suffering from credibility problem in the mainland because of dilly-dallying by island leaders on reforms they have promised to undertake, according to Juan N. Babauta, CNMI’s resident representative to Washington.

In his annual State of the Washington Office report, Babauta blamed this credibility issue as well as the strategy the Commonwealth has taken for the growing attempts in the U.S. Congress to alter the Covenant.

Since January this year, at least seven bills and other pieces of legislation are pending in both houses of the Congress seeking application of federal laws on immigration, minimum wage, tariffs and customs — functions which the island controls as provided in the 1976 agreement.

According to Babauta, the CNMI has become a “political issue” among the nation’s lawmakers and he is not surprised anymore that the island continues to draw negative publicity in mainland media.

“Even though we have a different (local) administration now, the legacy of mistrust (by U.S. leaders) endures,” he told before CNMI officials and lawmakers during his report to the Commonwealth yesterday.

Babauta underscored the need to improve the island’s federal relations, particularly at this time when even strong supporters, like Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and other Republicans, question its credibility.

In his legislation filed last month, Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that has oversight of U.S. insular areas, expressed disappointment over failure by the CNMI to deal with labor and immigration problems here.

The senator has sponsored a measure that will make the Immigration and Nationality Act applicable on the island, effectively transferring control of the local immigration under federal authorities.

Other bills underway in the Congress include imposing taxes on CNMI goods exported to the mainland, raising minimum wage level here at par with the prevailing federal rate as well as cutting U.S. construction grants to the island.

Babauta pointed out the Commonwealth must not give away these “privileges” of administering these vital functions, saying that island leaders still believe that the takeover proposal is not a solution to local problems.

“Let’s keep the good name of the Marianas and protect these privileges,” he urged local leaders.

In apparent major shift from his report last year, the representative praised efforts by the Tenorio administration and the Legislature to appropriate federal funds granted under Covenant 702 funding or the capital improvement projects.

Babauta lambasted attempt by the Clinton Administration to slash the $11 million-a-year assistance by 51 percent for the next three years which would mean nearly $16 million lost in vital infrastructure money of the Commonwealth.

Last year, he raised alarm over CNMI’s failure to spend some $154 million in CIP money — half of which will come from Washington — as it would drastically affect willingness by the Congress to appropriate the funds.

But the island has since begun allocating the funds, setting aside more than $60 million for projects such as the new prison and schoolbuildings for the past few months in efforts to spur the local economy.

“It looks like we are not spending the money, but we are,” Babauta explained. “It is just a matter of time.”