Authored by Rep. Sheila Babauta, H.J.R. 21-8 expresses the CNMI government’s position on military activities in the Commonwealth.
The committee chairman, Rep. Luis John Castro, said Gov. Ralph DLG Torres sent Special Assistant for Military Affairs Glenna SP Reyes to represent him in a meeting on Oct. 23, 2020.
However, Castro said, they were not able to act on the governor’s version of the resolution because besides himself there were only two other committee members present: Reps. Tina Sablan and Richard Lizama.
The other members of the committee are Reps. Leepan Guerrero, Ivan Blanco, Joel Camacho and Ralph Yumul.
Castro said he told Reyes that he wanted to give the other committee members the opportunity to participate in the discussion before they act on the new version of the resolution.
“The consensus that day was to give the committee more time to review the governor’s proposed version,” Castro said.
Last month, the governor submitted a substitute version of H.J.R. 21-8, which he said aims “to capture the totality of all military activities of each initiative, how they each progressed, and of the efforts by our government over the years to ensure adequate protection of our lands, resources and environment.”
The substitute version, the governor said, also addresses each of the concerns expressed in the committee version of H.R. 21-8.
“The evolving views of our people and differing actions taken by our government in the past decade make it absolutely necessary to have an official record that documents the historical information to provide members of our community and our future generation a resource document to refer to in order to have a full understanding of the totality of military initiatives here at home,” the governor said.
