Close-Up youths deliver message to CNMI leaders

Government corruption, casinos, and other pressing issues were brought to the attention of legislators at the conclusion of the 2014 Close-Up Youth Summit at Saipan World Resort on Friday.

A student committee on law enforcement brought up government corruption, specifically House Bill 18-200, the proposed “Anti-Abuse of Authority Act of 2014” which would make it against the law for government employees to be convicted of a crime that their superior ordered them to do. They asked that the bill be amended so that the superior be removed from their position.

“The original bill says that the superior is just going to be charged or given jail term, but we want it to be amended so the superior can be removed from office,” committee chair Lou Frances Pua said in an interview.

Vice speaker Francisco Dela Cruz called the bill “good legislation,” noting previous instances of corruption in the CNMI by former governors and former department heads.

He said employees acting under orders of the superior in these cases were only “doing what they were told.”

Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) also took note of the students’ proposed amendment.

“You’re recommendation for me is very simple…and as a chairman of the Saipan Northern Island Legislative delegation, I am now directing Rep. [Roman] Benavente (Ind-Saipan) to look into this and change this right now,” he said to the applause of the audience.

Before presenting their proposal, the all-female committee asked legislators to not to view them as “teenagers or kids but to see them as the future of the CNMI.”

“They do know that it is happening and they were surprised that we brought it up, that we would know,” she said.

The students also brought up the issue of a casino on Saipan, with Rep. Richard Seman (R-Saipan) and Vice Speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan) taking different stances in their responses.

“Why does the government still want to pass this [casino] plan?” one student asked, citing previous voter rejection of the plan.

Seman explained that the casino addresses “the now-needs” and the long-term development of the economy with immediate infusion of cash into the retirement fund and the building of much needed hotel rooms on island.

Dela Cruz said he believes “the casino was used to try satisfy the issues we are facing” but that the critical issue should be left to the people to decide.

“We want big investors to come to this island, but we want the right big investors,” Billy Hinson told the Saipan Tribune.

Hinson said he expects the majority of the funds to generated by the casino to be “sucked out of the island” by the foreign investors.

Another student, Jose Trinidad, felt slighted by the exclusive casino deal pushed through by the Legislature.

“The last time I checked ‘democracy’ came from the Greek prefix ‘demo’ which means ‘people.’ When the Legislature ignored the voices of the people, that essentially cancelled the very definition of democracy, changing it from a democracy to an autocracy,” he said.

Maria Dizon, who was at the summit for her second year, said the in-depth policy research, getting facts correct, and avoiding the influence of the media were the most difficult part of her experience.

“I think [politicians] should be more aware that we are more informed, and there are programs like Close-up that are really want us to be informed. They should really reach out to us and see what we think,” she said.