‘Enabling the addict’

If your son had a nasty heroin addiction, what would you do? If he came to you for money, would you give it to him so that he could shoot up more heroin?

That’s essentially what our lawmakers did in last Friday’s special House session when they passed HB 16-130, which bails out CUC by loaning them $3.4 million to put a down payment on leasing back-up generators from Aggreko and additional money to pay off its outstanding debts to two contractors running our power plants.

I sat in along with other concerned citizens during the entire session Friday and watched our lawmakers debate this very controversial CUC bailout bill. To be fair, all lawmakers presented some compelling arguments for and against the bill, and most seemed torn with the decision they had to make.

The final outcome? The bill passed 12 – 6. The six who voted against the bill were Reps. Heinz Hofschneider, Tina Sablan, Ed Salas, Frank Dela Cruz, Rosemond Santos, and Joseph Camacho. Reps. Ralph Torres and Ray Yumul were absent.

The main reason why the 12 lawmakers passed this bailout bill for CUC? Our people desperately need stable power. But hey, a heroin addict desperately needs heroin. That still doesn’t make it right.

Make no mistake about it. The intentions of our 12 lawmakers to pass this bill are good in nature. But as I have said before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

CUC promises this contract will deliver the 14 megawatts of power needed to bring stable power to Saipan. But are we forgetting something extremely important here? Didn’t CUC executive director Tony Muna promise we would have stable power by June? Didn’t we learn from CUC’s previous mistakes? When will we learn that we need to stop rewarding CUC for their incompetence and mistakes?

The bottom line? Our House and Senate bailed out CUC once again. Some of our leaders expressed that they had no other viable option. In life, there are always other options; it is just a matter of vigorously exhausting all plausible options in an all-out effort to find the best one. At the very least, our noble leaders had the power to demand that CUC put together a legitimate no-nonsense timetable and a detailed plan of action on how they will repair and rehabilitate our broken engines. Who exactly is fixing our engines anyway? Right now, CUC is terminating its questionable $5 million contract with DCM and it is not even invoking the penalty clauses with this shady sole-sourced “emergency” contractor! Right now, CISCO is being investigated by the FBI for its $1.2 million payout, while it never even repaired and rehabilitated Power Plant 2 as promised! So who exactly is going to fix our generators, Mr. Muna? You? CISCO? A sister company of DCM? No, thanks! I’d rather purchase a small home generator and get off the grid than to believe more CUC empty promises and white lies.

I often wonder, was it a sheer coincidence that we experienced few, if any, power outages in our villages while Governor Fitial was off island suing the U.S. government with special interest money? Was it a sheer coincidence that Garapan, the CNMI’s tourist capital, suddenly experienced daily blackouts from 10pm to 12 midnight right before the House and Senate were to vote on the CUC bailout bill? Was it a sheer coincidence that leading up to the CUC bailout bill, every village in Saipan experienced longer and more frequent blackouts? Was it a sheer coincidence that during the House debate on the CUC bailout bill, they were suddenly exempted from their daily 10am to 12pm scheduled power outage? Was it a sheer coincidence that Tony Muna promised Aggreko they would have the $1.5 million down payment for Aggreko even before the House and Senate agreed to the CUC bailout? Sounds like a whole lot of coincidences to me. I am sorry, but I cannot trust anything that this administration says about CUC. We have been fooled one too many times! Aren’t you getting sick and tired of it?

You want to hear Reality 101? If you think your current utility bill is outrageously high right now with all of our blackouts and load shedding, what do you think your utility bill is going to look like when we all finally have 24-hour power along with July’s 2.6 cent per kilowatt hour increase? What do you think your utility bill will look like when CUC and Tony Muna raise our utility rates in order to pay back the MPLT loan, Aggreko, Telesource, PMIC, and its other private contractors? Do you honestly believe CUC can do all of this without raising our rates? Of course not! We will see more of our people without electricity because they can no longer afford to keep the lights on in their homes.

Remember, Tony Muna originally said all they needed was 10 megawatts of back-up power. Then he retracted his statement and said CUC actually needs 15. Then Tony Muna says they will only need Aggreko’s back-up generators for one year. Now he is saying they will probably need the back-up generators for 18 months! Who is to say Tony Muna won’t change his mind again and say that we need the back-up generators for two years, or that we need to lease an additional 10 or 20 megawatts of power? What is at stake here? Millions of dollars that is being flushed down the toilet while we lower our living standards and live like cavemen. Are you okay with this?

The day we bring change to the CNMI is the day that 2,000 voters are willing to assemble in front of Governor Fitial’s office and demand accountability and good governance. But let’s be honest. No one is willing to risk their government job. The fear factor has paralyzed our people from standing up against tyranny.

How sad it is when I think about the fact that our people once were warriors! Today, we are nothing but complacent drones willing to accept bad governance, corruption, and incompetence. I used to blame the governor for all of our problems. Now I must realize that the true blame belongs in the hands of each and every one of us who stands by and watches while the CNMI crumbles. Many have fled our islands. More will leave within the end of the year. Will you be one of them, or are you willing to stand up and fight for your home?

I have put everything on the line to speak out against this regime we like to call a government. But I will be damned if I am going to surrender peacefully. God gave us the opportunity to choose our destiny. I ask you my brothers and sisters of our Commonwealth, what will you choose? To flee or fight? To be a part of the problem or a part of the solution? To continue with the status quo, or be a part of the movement for improvement??

Take a good look around you. Change will never happen unless you are willing to be a part of that change. In life, we must take risks and we must make sacrifices if we are to bring real change. Whatever it is you decide, may God bless you and your family during these dark and depressing times…