Flashback April 3, 2000-2002

CDA delinquency rate up 2 percent[/B]

The Commonwealth Development Authority has recorded a two percent increase in delinquency rate, indicating a distressing growth in the number of re miss borrowers during the first three months of the year, Board Chair John S. Tenorio said. The two percent rise in the January-March loan payment delinquency brought to 15 percent the development authority’s overdue collectibles. CDA reported a 13 percent delinquency rate by end-December 1999. Mr. Tenorio said if the increase in the delinquency rate of the government’s prime lending agency would continue at the first quarter level, it may translate to more than $2 million in unpaid and overdue collectibles from its $80 million portfolio each year.

The federal government deployed close to 300 enumerators and field supervisors throughout the Northern Marianas Saturday, marking the start of the CNMI-wide Census 2000 which is being carried out once every 10 years. Census 2000 Area Manager Sohale Samari said celebrity households including those of Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan, Bishop Thomas Camacho and Saipan Mayor Jose Sablan were the first to be enumerated. Mr. Samari said enumerators, crew leaders and field supervisors were divided into four major teams which were dispatched to do door-to-door interview of all the households on Saipan. There is one team each to carry out enumeration on Tinian and Rota.
[B] APRIL 3, 2001

Better days ahead for the CNMI[/B]

Slight upsurge in the tourism industry and growing business confidence have given the Northern Marianas economy the extra push to reach the $2-billion mark by end-December 2000. A report released by the Tenorio Administration indicated that Business Gross Revenues is likely to soar 1.6 percent, or amount to $2.140 billion, for the end of the year 2000. This growth is primarily spurred by the 5.3 percent increase in visitor arrivals to the Northern Marianas last year. Records from the Marianas Visitors Authority disclosed the entry of close to 530,000 tourists into the islands in 2000.

A Nepalese woman is standing trial for allegations that she intentionally dropped a nine-month old child on the floor while baby-sitting the infant on Feb. 29, 2000. Parents of the child caught the alleged abuse on a recorded home video installed inside the master bedroom in their San Vicente home. During a bench trial in Associate Judge Virginia Sablan-Onerheim’s courtroom yesterday, the couple in separate testimonies stated that after coming home from work that day, they reviewed the afternoon tape which showed footage of defendant Manju Pandey dropping their child twice on the floor.

San Antonio school vandalized[/B]

The staff and faculty of San Antonio Elementary School are spending what’s left of the spring break cleaning up an enormous mess caused by unidentified suspects on majority of the public campus’ classrooms. Tobet Smith, the school’s acting principal, said yesterday they are trying to restore the classrooms and salvage school appliances which were trashed by unknown trespassers over the Holy weekend. School personnel are trying to finish the cleanup in time for the resumption of classes on Monday. Fifteen of the school’s 17 classrooms, including the Headstart facility, were torn upside down. “Paint was sprayed on walls, fire extinguisher spattered on the floor and on electronic appliances,” Smith said in an interview.

The U.S. Marines stationed on Tinian have begun leaving the island, after the conclusion of the recent Millennium Edge military exercises, with the first batch taking off Monday last week and the last batch set to leave on April 8. According to Tinian Rep. Norman S. Palacios, the U.S. Marines begun leaving the island in batches since March 25. “All the soldiers are leaving and I understand that their last day will be on April 8. After that, though, a new batch will be coming in and I think even Guam’s National Guard are also going to come in, about 200 of them,” said Palacios yesterday. He did not specify the specific date of the arrival of the new batch of U.S. soldiers or of the National Guard members but he added that it will be “very soon.”