A mistake from the start

This is in response to Tan Pedro R. Deleon Guerrero’s column titled “Article 12 must stay” (Saipan Tribune, March 9, 2012) concerning the land alienation issue in the CNMI, better known as Article 12. You stated that Article 12 is about the continued existence of persons of Northern Marianas descent and their rights, privileges, and opportunities, hence it shall be debated and decided only by the people of the Commonwealth who are persons of Northern Marianas descent and that should be accepted and respected by all regardless.

How do you define Northern Marianas descent? What rights, privileges, and opportunities have we been afforded by the CNMI government? Are you talking about the CNMI descent who are related or friends of CNMI elected officials and the former board of directors of the Marianas Public Lands Authority? Since many of us were being denied our homestead and agriculture land for political reason, are we considered non-CNMI descent too? What is your definition of CNMI descent? Do you have to be politically connected to be afforded the right, privilege, and opportunities? Tan Pedro, please clarify your definition of the CNMI descent.

According to my cousin, the late Jose Cruz (Pinchang), the floodgate had been opened and there are no recourses to stop the flow. Our elected officials in the past sold our future, for the mere fact that our elders were uneducated and they had no sense of direction when it came to the American politicos. I agree with you that Article 12 is not the culprit relating to our economic downturn. But I strongly disagree with you that we need to keep the land alienation policy in the CNMI.

Article 12 was a mistake from the very beginning because it was a breeding ground for discrimination against other ethnicities in our island chain. The land alienation policy does not only discriminate against other races but it also discriminates against the very people who are entitled to your so-called rights, privileges, and opportunities to get homestead. The relatives and friends of the former MPLA board of directors were being given the opportunity to have the most pristine homestead in the CNMI. You may drive alongside Kammer Beach on Tinian and you will see that most of the homesteaders were related to the former board of directors. Maybe your main objective to keep Article 12 in the CNMI is to preserve the status quo. You can’t have it both ways, being an American and for you to continue to contradict the very foundation (U.S. Constitution and amendments) that makes the United States unique.

Segundo Castro
San Jose, Tinian