By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor
Variety Features Editor

AS the islands’ economy continues its downward spiral, more and more residents are asking, “Where is the CNMI going?”
More locals are leaving the islands, hesitantly, in search of a better future for their families who are not having better times.
Locals who have been educated on the mainland United States can not find jobs that match their qualifications — or that pay them decently.
As they try to reintegrate into the local community, they have been pushed to the proverbial wall.
Nonresident workers are also leaving the islands.
Some former garment workers have asked local residents to enter into arranged marriages for a certain fee so they can obtain IR status.
Some who cannot go back home unless they first acquire the money to pay their creditors have resorted to prostitution.
Some of these women offer “sex now, pay later” schemes to their clients.
Former Department of Public Health spokesman and teacher John Douglas and his fiancée, as well as several teachers from the U.S., left in 2006.
In an interview with Variety, Beautify CNMI! officer Angelo Villagomez said education in the U.S. provides locals with social mobility and access to better job opportunities.
He said they are among those who are now leaving their islands in order to seek better opportunities for themselves and their families.
Jim Davis, a Japanese translator, businessman, and Saipan resident for 16 years, said “It’s one thing for those of us who came from outside to leave. It is another thing when locals who grew up here are leaving.”
He added, “They can’t make a living on their own island. They can’t survive. They have to take care of their families, so they go to Guam and the U.S. mainland and join the military in order to survive.”
He said the minimum wage is not the only issue — “Everything is an issue; everything that affects your bottom line is an issue.”
Investors are also leaving the islands for a host of reasons, Davis said.
He said investors he spoke with told him that “they felt ripped off, betrayed.”
“This is what chases them away.”
And these businessmen will return to their countries and tell their countrymen of their bad experience here.
“And that is generating bad publicity for the CNMI,” said Davis.
“Investors come here and they believe that they need certain people in power to do things for them, but all they need is a corporation, a business license, and to conduct their business lawfully. They often feel they need to take shortcuts and do things under the table when, in the end, it just hurts them. My clients are starting to realize that doing it legally and upfront and on top of the table does not cost them that much in the end,” he said.
When asked if there is still hope for the CNMI, Davis said, “Only if serious change happens, and the changes that must happen are in the government. Change also has to take place in the business community. We are the ones that have to create the change and make it happen. Our leaders need to lead the government for their grandchildren and great grandchildren. They can’t do it for themselves. It’s their children and grandchildren who are going to suffer from what is really an exodus. And people are leaving. They are leaving in hordes. And not only are they leaving, they are leaving with a lot of negative publicity for our community.”
Asked what makes him stay, Davis replied, “There are a number of private reasons that make me stay. Primarily, I’ve been here 16 years and no matter what negative things keep repeating themselves, I still believe in honest business. I believe in integrity and I believe in giving people a fair shake, and doing fair business. And I believe there are other people out there who believe that and will make a difference on island.”
Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan, said “It is very sad to see our own people leaving their homeland to find better opportunities elsewhere when we in the CNMI, as leaders, can do something about it. Everything goes up — services and goods — these people, especially those with families, cannot afford a decent life with such a minimum wage.”
He said the government, which pays more than what the private sector does, has to reduce its workforce.
“And in order to prevent a brain drain, we need to look at what drives our young people away from their homeland. One of the biggest problems is the minimum wage and their lack of employment in the government which pays more.”
Quitugua said that he would like to see “more of our people work in the private sector. And I also would like to see that they are paid commensurate with their qualifications. I do not expect a college graduate to come back to work for $3.05 an hour in the private sector. I do not see local engineering students working in the private sector for $3.05. We really need to look at this and raise the minimum wage.”
Quitugua doesn’t believe that raising the minimum wage would drive investors away.
“Guam has increased its minimum wage to $7.25 and did it drive the investors away? No. When we increased the minimum wage from $2 plus to $3.05, did it drive the investors away? No! The factor here is not the minimum wage; it is a combination of other things that drives investors away,” he said.
Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, said the “exodus” is motivated by a desire “to seek greener pastures than those which are available here.”
CNMI leaders, he said, “are here to try to stop the (exodus) and make our economy stand tall again. We continue to fix our policies and simplify them for business people.”
The government, he added, cannot continue to be the main employer. “Let’s face it. Our financial condition is not as healthy as it was 10-15 years ago. I don’t think this government can continue deficit spending just so we can employ people that do not have jobs.”
Former Marpac Saipan liquor and tobacco sales manager Sheila Peebles, who has transferred to Guam, said it is shocking to hear that more and more local people are leaving the CNMI.
“For me it is easier — I don’t own land, I don’t have family here. So I can pick up my things and leave. For the people born here, this is their home, and what they have to experience day in and day out to make a livelihood here as this island struggles economically — my heart goes out to them.”
Peebles said it is no longer financially viable for some local people to stay on island with prices continuing to rise.
Rep. Cinta M. Kaipat, Covenant-Saipan, said she, too, is saddened by the ongoing exodus.
“It is really unfortunate because we are going through a crisis right now. I don’t blame people for making the best decision they can come up with for their personal lives, for their families. But in a crisis situation, you really need your best people to be putting their collective talents to work so can we pull ourselves out of this.”
She said it is high time that the community had a serious discussion regarding available options and see which one will work for the CNMI. “It does not necessarily mean that if something works somewhere else, it is going to work here. Part of our problem is we rush to legislate without taking the time to actually do our research to make sure that the solutions we are proposing are those that will take root in our community.”
Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama, speaking as an individual and not as a judge, said the issue of people leaving the islands is nothing new. “Before I went to college, a lot of people were leaving for Guam and the United States. Some relocated to Guam because the minimum wage on Guam was more attractive.”
Asked about the federal minimum wage bill, Lizama, speaking again as an individual and not as a judge, said: “The minimum wage is a local issue. Why is it that we had to wait for Congressman George Miller to make it a federal issue?”
Businessman Bud White said the CNMI has had many years to get its act together.
“They have not done that and I think to do it now is ‘too little, too late.’ Hiring a lobbyist at this late hour is ridiculous and even buying an airline ticket and flying to Washington, D.C. is just a waste of money,” he said.
White, whose employees have been with him for over 10 years, said he pays his staff, including his housekeeper, more than the U.S. minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.
To stop the brain drain, White said job availability has to come first.
“If there are jobs available, then people can be hired to fill those jobs. Salary is one of the issues but certainly not the only one that is considered by someone working for a local business. If I was considering a local job, I would want to know what the long-term opportunities are for that job. Will I get special training? Will I get a raise in wages if I contribute to the company? Will there be job stability? Can I share in the future earnings of the company? These are all important questions not just the starting salary.”
The Tinian mayor’s special consultant for resource development, Thomas Arkle Jr., said the CNMI has been reactive rather than proactive.
CNMI society, he added, is one that is government-based for which Arkle blames the U.S.
He said the federal government “instilled an errant workforce” attitude following World War II.
Arkle said the government should reduce its employment and create private sector jobs through the “retraining of excess employees by utilizing salaries for training and funding for insertion into niche industries.”
A new, higher minimum wage is required, he added.
He said the government must contract to the private sector many of its functions and 40-50 percent of current government jobs should be in the private sector.
Sen. Maria Frica T. Pangelinan, D-Saipan, said in discussing the minimum wage, the available workforce must be taken into account. “What do we have in the workforce, what kind of professional training do we have to provide to them? Unfortunately, the nonresident worker fees which are in the millions of dollars were supposed to go for that purpose — to train our local people. The right structure and the right program have not yet been set up.”
Former Northern Marianas College President Agnes M. McPhetres said “It is sad that many of our people will have to leave the island.”
She said that a contributing factor is clearly a lack of jobs for residents who are forced to look for better opportunities elsewhere.
Special assistant to the NMC board, Mark B. Mendiola, also echoed what the others have said about the minimum wage and the exodus of local residents.
He said the price of a gallon of gas is higher than the minimum wage — $3.07 per gallon vs. $3.05 minimum wage. “We work one day to fill a tank of gas for the rest of the week,” he said.