“This is about the future of local agriculture,” Cing said in an interview on Friday. “Once we get rid of these flies, we can produce more and better crops that we can import to Japan or Korea.”
A senator from 1992 to 2004, Cing was on the CNMI 902 panel in 1993 that raised this issue with the U.S. president’s representative, then-Assistant Interior Secretary Stella G. Guerra. Guam, however, couldn’t meet the matching fund requirement, Cing said.
“We have to address this issue once and for all,” Cing said. “Our economy is down and our people need another source of livelihood.”
He said he has been coordinating with the Rota and Tinian legislative delegations as well as with former Lt. Gov. Benjamin T. Manglona, the head of the local 902 panel in 1993, to get all the necessary documents that will support the funding request.
“Typhoon Pongsona in 2002 destroyed some of our documents,” Cing said. “So I will ask [Manglona] to go with me to D.C. and meet with [Bordallo].”
In August last year, Tinian’s lawmakers sent a letter to the Guam congresswoman regarding the “ongoing problem” with fruit flies.
“We…have an abundance of flies but what we do not have is the ability to move our produce to Guam and vice versa due to the flies,” the Tinian lawmakers stated. “Because of the much anticipated relocation of our nation’s armed forces to Guam and the CNMI, we very much would like the opportunity to support our troops and the war effort by offering and/or providing them our health and delicious produce.”
They asked Bordallo to discuss their request with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Defense “or any other appropriate federal agency.”
