Retirees association to take positions on Fund issues

Members of the Commonwealth Retirees Association will meet this week to take a unified position on several issues now affecting the pension program.

Group member Oscar Camacho, in an email message to his colleagues, invited all retirees to a general assembly at the American Memorial Park on Thursday night, which will also highlight the selection of new officers of the association. The event is slated from 6pm through 8:30pm at the visitor’s center.

The group has extended the invitation to Fund administrator Richard Villagomez and members of the Legislature.

Camacho said a position has to be reached after the assembly whether CRA will support Sapuro Rayphand’s lawsuit filed recently in federal court where the retiree requested the removal of the Fund’s case against the CNMI government from the Superior Court.

“CRA board has already taken the position to support a federal lawsuit…but has not authorized for the withdrawal of the suit from the CNMI court. The board supports Sapuro but we need to clarify and follow a process and that is to seek approval and endorsement from the general membership,” Camacho told retirees in his email.

He also revealed that CRA did not hire Atty. Bruce Jorgensen as the group’s lawyer and that the group does not have an attorney. Jorgensen represented Rayphand on the recent suit he filed.

Besides this issue, members are also expected to come up with its unified view whether they will support the proposed cut on their pension benefits and if its supported, which among the proposed recommendations will they prefer for immediate implementation.

According to the Retirement Fund, there is no law in the CNMI that allows the board of trustees to unilaterally restructure benefit payments to retirees. Therefore, in order to restructure the Fund’s liabilities, it asked the court to use its equitable powers in order to restructure the Fund’s liabilities by temporarily reducing benefits to members. If granted, the CNMI government remains obligated to pay to each retiree the difference of what they were supposed to get and what the Fund pays out.

These options include across-the-board cut on all members’ benefits from 10 percent, 25 percent, up to 50 percent—on top of eliminating the cost of living allowance and disability benefits.

The Fund earlier disclosed that if both COLA and disability benefits are stopped, this would reduce the Fund’s liability because it will yield significant savings of $95 million for the program.

Based on the current investment portfolio of the pension program of only $271.2 million as of Aug. 16, the pension plan has only up to three years remaining if no immediate resolution is identified and implemented.

Camacho said CRA will also request associate judge Kenneth Govendo to reconsider his ruling on setting aside $100 million reserve fund for active employees and retired members who have yet to collect their pensions.