FLASHBACK February 24, 1999-2003

Reyes: Lobbyist needed[/B]

To protect CNMI interests in Washington, the island government needs to hire a lobbyist that will effectively help local leaders in blocking fresh attempts to wrestle control of labor and immigration to federal authorities, Senate Floor leader Pete P. Reyes said yesterday. But because of the tight financial situation of the government, the island will just have to settle with “personal appearance” by local officials in Washington to meet with U.S. congressional members and staffers, he said. “We’re between a rock and a hard place and we simply have no money to do that,” Reyes explained, “but we need to hire a lobbying firm.”

A government body tasked to map out a comprehensive jail management in the Northern Marianas is hoping to complete a plan on the new prison aimed to ease overcrowding in the existing facility and help stave off the spate of jailbreaks in recent months. Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, head of the prison task force formed last year by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, said they expect to break ground on the proposed $17 million jail within six months to hasten upgrade of conditions for close to a hundred inmates on the island. “The task force is under the direction of the governor to speed up things and we have done so,” he said in an interview. Likewise, the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday reached an agreement with the CNMI to improve correctional and detention facilities here, which it denounced as unsafe and unsanitary as well as failing to meet constitutional standards.

CUC official demanded kickback, says witness[/B]

A witness for the prosecution yesterday revealed that Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Board Member Benjamin M. Sablan demanded payment from her in connection with the hiring of 12 Filipino workers for the utilities firm. Elizabeth P. Castaneda, owner of EPC Recruiting Service, testified during a trial before the U.S. District Court that the two payments she made were part of an earlier agreement with Mr. Sablan that he would get a $200 “commission” for each contract worker that will be sent to Saipan to work with CUC. The CUC official is now facing bribery charges before the federal court for allegedly accepting kickbacks from EPC as a reward for a business transaction involving the hiring of Filipino contract workers.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday expressed disappointment over the decision of authorities to allow inmate Jesse James Camacho, who was convicted for the brutal slaying of a 13-year-old boy in April 1998, to do community work last Wednesday. Mr. Tenorio said he was as much surprised just like everybody else that Mr. Camacho was chosen to assist the Board of Parole office in providing maintenance work. Assistant Attorney General Kevin Lynch, chief of the Criminal Division, strongly protested the decision allowing Mr. Camacho to get out of the corrections facility without close supervision.

Signs good for asylum aid[/B]

Sen. Thomas P. Villagomez said signs are encouraging that the Commonwealth will obtain U.S. aid in the CNMI’s political asylum dilemma. The Senate Judiciary, Government and Law Committee chairman disclosed that the assistance may come in the form of technical expertise and funding from the federal government. Villagomez, who met with the State Department and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service last month in San Francisco, said U.S. officials have expressed willingness to train its CNMI counterparts on the implementation of political asylum application procedures.

The Commonwealth witnessed another drop in bank assets during the last three months of 2002-the fourth straight quarterly decline since January last year, according to a report from the CNMI Department of Commerce’s Banking Division. Down by a little over 2.5 percent, bank assets slid to $253.1 million in the October-December 2002 period from the previous quarter’s tally of $259.7 million, reflecting a significant slowdown in lending activities amid economic worries due to a possible United States-led attack on Iraq. The government did not make any loan transaction in the last quarter of last year, while consumer loans totaled $60.9 million during the same period-down from the previous quarter’s $62.1 million.