Nothing could be more poignant and more arresting than the March 11 earthquake that triggered a huge tsunami in Japan leaving in its wake a nuclear meltdown, 15,000 lives lost, 3,000 missing individuals, 125,000 damaged buildings, and $235 billion in economic losses for Japan.
Although Tokyo, Japan was over 3,000 kilometers away from the Northern Marianas, distance proved insignificant as the residents expressed its outpouring display of sympathy with Japan.
Hundreds of “letters of hope” through the Saipan Mayor’s Office and the Rotary Club were sent to Japan to express support and sympathy to those affected by the triple disaster that hit the country.
PDM Promoters, among other businesses on island, helped raise $3,000 for the benefit of the victims.
The Rotary Club, among other organization, also conducted its own tsunami relief donation.
The NMI-Japan Disaster Relief operation through its president Nick Nishikawa handed a check for $50,000 to Japan consul Tsutomu Higuchi.
Other CNMI companies and their affiliates in the region also participated in the global effort to assist Japan in this time of need.
This earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster caused trepidation in the region especially with memories of the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami that hit a broad swath of countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia still fresh.
But the residents of the CNMI as well as the neighboring islands kept praying that the Japanese people would be able to get over the catastrophe that befell them this year.
Back on the home front, there were a number of significant issues that hugged the headlines although they paled in comparison with the tsunami disaster in Japan.
The much awaited implementation of the final regulations of the transitional worker program in the CNMI took effect on Nov. 28, 2011 and the run up to the Nov. 28 deadline to file CW petitions for both workers and their dependents hugged the headlines and caused other rippling effects.
The visit of the outreach team of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services led by Honolulu District Director David G. Gulick led to a series of sessions across the commonwealth.
Newspaper front pages were peppered with stories on the guidelines and how workers needed to make their paroles current.
Despite efforts by USCIS to keep everybody informed of the procedures for filing CW petitions, there remained some groups of people who believe the federal government should grant improved status to the nonresident workers who have been on the islands for five years and over.
Mirroring the movement on the mainland that expressed its dissatisfaction with the Wall Street executives, a group of nonresident workers also organized their so called “Occupy USCIS” in an effort to raise their discontent with the new regulations and to voice their opinion that nonresident workers should be granted an improved status as recommended by the Department of Interior to the U.S. Congress.
But until the statutory expiration of the umbrella permit on Nov. 28, the only hope that could be given them was an extension of parole or a grant of parole for relatives of U.S. citizens who are potential beneficiaries of Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan’s H.R. 1466.
Just as the “Occupy USCIS” movement was peacefully expressing their opinion, another group communicated their concerns with immigration lawyers Ted Laguatan and Loida Lewis of US Pinoys for Good Governance as they sought their assistance so they could be allowed to remain in the CNMI.
Workers rights leader Rabby Syed’s trip to the United States also hugged the headlines in 2011; however, he returned to the CNMI with no assurance from Congress that workers would be given an improved status.
In Nov. 2011, employers raced to beat the Nov. 28 as they complied with filing CW and H-1 petitions for their workers.
The statutory costs of the compliance with the regulations led some companies to close shop as they could not afford to pay for the fees.
Scores of workers were displaced as a result of the regulations mandating that companies put priority on hiring U.S. workers.
As nonresident workers got replaced by U.S. workers, those who had been unemployed for a long while had been placed in a more precarious situation as they continued to hope that an administrative relief would be granted them.
In the interim, the DHS-Immigration and Customs Enforcement began apprehending individuals who have incurred unlawful presence and kicked off the continuing immigration court proceedings, with some resulting in deportation of a number of individuals.
The year 2011 could very well be also the year of the retirees and their beneficiaries as they fight for their hard-earned pensions and the survival of the ever-generous retirement fund.
As early as February 2011, the red flags were up concerning the financial situation of the pension system with the CNMI government’s continued failure to remit its actuarially determined employer contributions to the Fund.
As early as May 2011, the actuary Buck Consultants presented before the Legislature scenarios by which the Fund’s financial bleeding could be stanched and by which the pension agency’s viability could be assured.
Projecting the life of the Fund to be “at best — five years,” actuarial consultant Dylan Porter gave the lawmakers five scenarios that required cutting of benefits to ensure that the Fund would be able to survive longer.
In August, Fund investment consultant Maggie Ralbovsky sounded the alarm to the lawmakers that investment was not the silver bullet to the Fund’s troubles and its lifespan was about three years.
“There is no comparison to this Fund. This fund is off the charts,” she said in an earlier interview with Variety.
Then September gave the Fund a severe blow with the passage of the P.L. 17-51 that allowed for beneficiaries to sue any entity they found has harmed the Fund.
This law chased away the Fund’s service providers investment consultant, actuary, money managers and auditor.
Operating without a consultant, the Fund could not invest in the market as P.L. 6-17 mandates that it hires a consultant with at least $200 million under its advisement.
The Fund was forced to adopt a modified Glidepath 2013 investment strategy, liquidated its assets and started placing its money in the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service Network — which means placing their cash in hundreds of banks up to $250,000 per bank as insured by the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp.
Now, the Fund remains without service providers despite the issuance of RFP’s and it is still moving about $15 million every week to CDARS network.
As the Fund board of trustees upheld their fiduciary duties to save the pension program, the Fund also fought and still fights several lawsuits in the Superior Court and the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Its collection lawsuit was removed to the District Court for the NMI by retiree Sapuro Rayphand who acted pro se.
But the court later remanded the case back to the Superior Court and awarded attorney’s fees against Rayphand.
This week, Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo ruled in favor of granting the motion to intervene to four agencies as they argued the huge impact to their operations the Fund’s recently effective new employer contribution rate, which to the agencies resulted from the Fund’s inability to collect from the central government.
The central government owes the Fund over $316 million in judgment plus interest.
As the boat continues to sink, others began to flee. Another bill, House Bill 17-226 allowed active members to withdraw their contributions.
Withdrawal would mean it would jeopardize the Fund’s cash flow in the short term.
Seeing that the Fund could not contract with any provider, the lawmakers had a change of heart and is currently working on a repeal to P.L. 17-51.
But more than the economic ramifications of the Fund’s ultimate depletion, what still baffles the community is the disappearance of the Luhk sisters.
Faloma and Maleina Luhk have yet to be found up to this day and their disappearance has caught the attention of the people from overseas.
Of all the economic and social problems that the community faced in 2011, one thing remained constant: in the face of uncertainties and adversities, the members of the community will always be ready to lend a helping hand.
The year 2011 was racked with challenges and the people could only depend on hope to tide them over the most difficult of situations.
By all accounts, they could only hope for a better year for all in 2012.
