OVER the several days in our local newspapers, I came across interesting issues that are worth debating.
Instead of modifying the tenure of our Legislature, it is much appropriate at this point of time to consider reducing its size and operation. While we are reducing the operation of our government due to financial predicament and little result from our legislators to find solution to our declining revenue, I think that the people would accept a much leaner Legislature and other function of our government that are inefficient and costly to the taxpayers. The idea of abolishing the municipal council should also be considered as its role is very minimal and its budget is very unjustifiable considering the minuscule role they played in the government.
These and other efforts to reduce the size of the CNMI government should be considered by all in order to distribute the little wealth we have. The people expect our leaders to work harder in improving our economy and reinventing government operation to make it efficient and less costly. Our Legislature has every right to scrutinize the operation of our government, but it is also wise to examine its cost of operation.
No offense to our Legislature, but I like to make a friendly challenge to our local media to present to the public on a regular basis some sort of report on how and where each legislator is using the money allotted to them.
Similarly and out of fairness, we need to do much better investigative report on our executive branch’s expenditure as well.
Hopefully, they’ll be mindful of where they’re spending taxpayer money.
Just for the sake of discussion, I like the idea of the Republican Party prohibiting alcohol consumption during campaigns. This should be good for candidates and the people who want to listen to good campaigns. The issues of the people should really be presented in a decent environment in order to get the positions of our candidates clearly. May I recommend that other political parties heed this idea as well. Better yet, do we have someone out there in the Legislature who is courageous enough to explore this further and expand our election laws? What about our good Election Commission? Good luck!

BENJAMIN M. MANGLONA
Plano, Texas