Rep. Ralph S. Demapan, in an interview yesterday, said House Bill 17-7 will be on the session calendar this week and he expects the House to pass it.
The commission will “reexamine whether the people desire continuing in a commonwealth relationship with the U.S.”
Demapan, Covenant-Saipan and chairman of the committee, said for the first time, all members of the committee are signing the report recommending the passage of the bill, which Rep. Stanley T. Torres, Ind.-Saipan, also introduced in past Legislatures.
The other members of the committee are Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan; Reps Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan; Tony P. Sablan, R-Saipan; Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan’ and Teresita A. Santos, Ind.-Rota.
H.B. 17-7 will allow voters to determine if the continuation of Covenant with the U.S. is in the best interest of the CNMI people or whether some other political status “would better enable them to fulfill the aspirations of full and meaningful self-government.”
Torres, in a separate interview, said he has been proposing a new political commission for years and years now.
He said the earlier versions of the measure usually “died” in the committee because “probably, at the time, not so many had figured out how the federal government was screwing us.”
He said he is glad that many of his colleagues now see the need for a reassessment of the CNMI’s relationship with the U.S.
Torres said the political status commission will once again review the actions of the U.S. in interpreting and implementing the Covenant and will hold a plebiscite for a “more desirable future political status.”
