Flashback – Oct. 19, 1999-2000

In another attempt to stir the island’s slumping economy, the Commonwealth Development Authority says it plans to borrow up to $30 million from Bank of Guam to fast-track the implementation of Capital Improvement Projects.

The $30 million interim financing was decided by the CDA board to help stimulate the economy with the construction of various infrastructure projects listed under the 702 CIP Plan while waiting for the $60 million bond float, according to Board Chairman Juan S. Tenorio.

“In less than 15 days, the money will be released by the bank to get the projects going. We are doing this because we don’t want to lose the federal funds which have remained untapped due to lack of funds,” Tenorio said.

CDA has already chosen Paine Webber to handle the tax-exempt $60 million municipal bond float from a list of reputable underwriters that have submitted proposals to the authority.

The Department of Public Safety will soon adopt a policy that will immediately notify members of the judiciary about any prison escape so that they can protect themselves from possible attacks by inmates.

According to DPS Commissioner Charles W. Ingram, the new procedure was in response to a request made by Supreme Court Chief Justice Miguel Demapan.

Ingram said the department is also studying the possibility of providing security to members of the judiciary. Also to be notified by the police in the event of another prison escape are witnesses, victims and their relatives.

In his letter to Ingram, Demapan said judges and justices are potential targets of attacks by inmates who escape the corrections since they are the ones who send these convicts to jail.

Strict compliance with its self-imposed austerity measures allowed the administration of Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to cut its spending by close to six percent in the second quarter of the current financial year, representing $3.2 million total savings.

Records from the Department of Finance, which is contained in the Quarterly Economic Review prepared by the Central Statistics Division, disclosed the Tenorio Administration spent only about $52.3 million in the January to March period.

Intensified cost-cutting steps and tighter monitoring of unnecessary spending were the major factors that helped the administration slash government expenditures from $55.5 million during the first quarter of the Fiscal Year 2000.

Filipino workers in the Northern Marianas are taking advantage of their greenback’s stronger buying power as they intensify payment of outstanding loans with a Philippine government-controlled housing corporation.

PAG-IBIG Fund administrator on Saipan Lynell F. Fulgencio disclosed that a good number of Filipino workers have been advancing payments since the value of Philippine currency started plunging to beyond 45 pesos against the United states dollar.
Mr. Fulgencio explained that Filipinos are practically paying 50 percent less of their monthly amortization due to the peso’s devaluation against the dollar from a little over 25 pesos in 1996 to close to 50 pesos now.