Cruz described the CNMI Descents for Self-Government and Indigenous Rights as a “confused, pro-administration” group that is misleading the people by joining the “misguided fight against the federal government.”
Cruz said the group is a “front” organization of the ruling Covenant Party.
The officials of the group are all staunch supporters of the Fitial administration, he added.
The group’s spokesman and adviser, former Speaker Oscar C. Rasa, earlier said that their group is non-political.
He said they have more than 2,000 members who are “active defenders and protectors for the indigenous people’s rights.”
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said it is Cruz who does not speak for the majority of the local people.
“In fact, when some indigenous residents began to organize protests against federalization, Cruz alienated so many of them that many abandoned Taotao Tano and started their own separate groups,” Reyes said in an earlier interview.
In opposing Fitial’s lawsuit, Cruz reiterated that the governor’s action will do more harm than good to the CNMI’s relationship with the federal government.
“Governor Fitial’s intention is to actually have each section of our Covenant questioned and challenged in U.S. vourts which eventually will lead to an entire dismantling of our Covenant,” he said in an e-mail to Variety.
He asked the governor to withdraw the lawsuit against the federal government, saying it is an injustice to the people of commonwealth and the future generations.
“The current predicament of CNMI is not the making of the federal government but by our forefathers and past elected officials who did not address a critical and detrimental matter such as border control,” he added.
