Democratic Sen. Maria Frica T. Pangelinan, who topped the Saipan senatorial race in 2005, said she is already counting the days to the end of her term.
“I did my duty to the community and I realize I can’t make everyone happy with the decisions I make, but I can guarantee that I exerted efforts to do the best for the people I serve,” she said. “My left eye twitches sometimes — I now have to take care of my health and my family.”
The only other elected office held by Pangelinan, a financial management expert, was a constitutional convention delegate seat in 1985. She said she decided to seek a Senate seat three years ago because Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, “convinced me to run.”
“I thought I could do it and I should do it — so I ran,” she said.
The chairwoman of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, Pangelinan said she is grateful to be given the chance to serve the public.
“I’m also grateful for my colleagues who are very supportive — we work together in the Senate; we don’t care who gets the credit; the important thing is to serve the public,” she said.
Describing herself as a “detail person,” Pangelinan said she tries to provide background information needed in the drafting of legislation.
“I read a lot,” she added. “I read everything — I’m inundated with volumes of paper every day and I try to read them, and this way I was able to catch a lot of errors and correct them.”
Pangelinan believes that lawmakers shouldn’t be “graded” by the number of bills they introduced.
“What I think is needed is to review our current laws — and try to enforce them,” she said. “There is no need for new bills; what we need to do is to make the best of what we have; follow the existing laws and enforce them.”
She cited as an example the Planning and Budgeting Act of 1983.
“It’s a good law — we just have to comply with it,” she said.
According to the senator, real legislative work should be done in the committees.
“We should have more meetings, more public hearings and more review of bills before they’re sent to the floor,” she said. “We need to get all the right information before acting on a bill.”
She is particularly proud of the Senate’s introduction of the Defined Contribution Plan Act of 2006, which reformed the government’s retirement system.
In signing the law on June 16, 2006, the governor said “[t]his retirement reformation has been long overdue as the current system is undoubtedly unsustainable in its current form.” He added that under the Act, “the government’s ability to fully fund…retirement is now more likely.”
But Pangelinan admitted that it is “tiring” to deal with an inefficient government structure staffed with personnel “not qualified to do the things they’re hired to do.”
“It’s frustrating,” she said.
It is now time for the younger generation to take over the CNMI leadership, she added.
“We sent them to school and I now expect them to step up the plate — it’s happening now and that’s why I’m hopeful about the CNMI’s future.”
