Flashback November 22, 1999-2001

NMIRF junks plan to raise govt share[/B]

The NMI Retirement Fund Board has abandoned a recommendation to increase by 2 percent the government’s contribution for its workers in order to help the current administration cope with dwindling cash resources, according to Administrator Juan S. Torres.

An actuarial study had proposed to hike the share pitched in by the government to 26 percent from 24 percent to keep the NMIRF financially sound.

“The board had been mindful of the predicament this government is in and decided unanimously to forego the recommendations of the actuary,” Mr. Torres said.

Continental Airlines, Micronesia’s largest air carrier, has dropped the Northern Marianas from the list of “tropical island getaways” it is promoting as Pacific island resort destinations in the region.

The exclusion of CNMI from the list came months after Continental scaled back flights to Saipan from key cities in Japan, the main source of visitors of the island government, due to declining passenger haul.

In its OnePass Update, a newsletter Continental sends to OnePass members, it listed 11 island destinations in the Western Pacific, except Saipan, that it is recommending as vacation sites.

Social Security trust fund faces depletion[/B]

Federal officials are beefing up efforts to address the anticipated depletion of U.S. Social Security trust funds in order to ensure social security benefits are continuously made available to Americans both in the mainland and in the CNMI.

U.S. Social Security Administration Manager Michael G. Newman told a Saipan Rotary Club luncheon at the Hyatt yesterday that there are about 3,000 individuals in the CNMI who are active recipients of social security benefits today.

In the wake of a travel advisory issued by Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs warning its nationals on the rising criminality in the CNMI, visitor arrivals from Japan dropped 12 percent for the month of October compared to the same period last year.

But the Marinas Visitors Authority reported that arrivals for the month of October totaled 40, 423, a slight decline of 1.27 percent compared to October 1999.

MVA attributed the drop in visitor arrivals from Japan to the low load factor in the direct services and lack of extra flights in October 2000. In October 1999, there were three extra flights from Japan that came to the CNMI.

Dela Cruz eyed as next Senate VP[/B]

Senate President Paul A. Manglona will be the only familiar face in the incoming Senate leadership, as the Tinian senatorial delegation poises to claim first dibs on other leadership positions in the upper chamber.

Flexing their numerical superiority, the Tinian and Rota senatorial delegations have come to an unofficial agreement with other senators to confer upon Sen. Jose Dela Cruz the next Senate vice presidency.

The other Tinian senator, Sen. Joaquin G. Adriano, will then be the next Senate Floor Leader.

The Supreme Court reversed an April 2000 Superior Court ruling that granted a Tanapag resident a restraining order against her neighbor, citing that the lower court’s decision was a misinterpretation of the Family Protection Act.

In a seven-page opinion, Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan with justices Alexandro Castro and John A. Manglona, stated that the Superior Court misinterpreted the scope and definitions contained in the FPA, which they fear may be repeated if not rectified by the high court.

The three-member appellate panel moved to vacate the lower court ruling in that the conflicting parties in the case were not related.