By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE Retirement Fund needs $5,000 to implement the new law that renames its building on Capital Hill after the late former governor, Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero, who died last year from a lingering illness.
Fund Administrator Mark Aguon said they are just waiting for the transfer of the money specified in the law renaming the building the “Governor Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero Retirement Fund Building.”
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed Public Law 15-47 last week.
The new law was authored by Rep. Ray N. Yumul, Ind.-Saipan, and co-sponsored by five other lawmakers, who believe that naming the building after the late governor will be a fitting tribute in light of his contributions to the local pension system.
The late governor was instrumental in the establishment of the Retirement Fund as well as the construction of the building, according to the bill’s authors.
Deleon Guerrero died at 71 in Oct. 2006.
He began his political career in 1972 when he was elected as a member of the Marianas District Legislature.
He was re-elected in 1976.
That same year he served as a delegate and president of the first constitutional convention.
In 1978, Deleon Guerrero was elected president of the first CNMI Senate.
He also served as a delegate in the second Constitutional Convention in 1985.
In 1989, as the Republican candidate, he defeated his Democratic opponent, then-Washington Rep. Froilan C. Tenorio, who, in turn, beat him in the 1993 elections.