Local activist Raymond “Bo” Quitugua holds documents that he says support his advocacy.
LOCAL activist Raymond “Bo” Quitugua has “reached out” to the Federal Bureau of Investigation because he fears for his life.
The FBI office in the CNMI, he said, directed him to the regional office in Hawaii, which instructed him to lodge his complaint in Washington, D.C.
In an interview, Quitugua, who has raised concerns about the representation of Carolinian culture in the CNMI flag, said a group on Facebook, Speak Up Taotao CNMI, allowed an anonymous commenter to post a threat to his life last week.
He quoted the commenter as telling him, “You better stop talking against Refaluwasch.”
Quitugua said he feels there is a threat to his life. “I can’t even count how many times,” he said, referring to the threats against him posted online. He questions why the administrators of Speak Up Taotao CNMI permit “cyberbullies” to post threats on social media.
“Now my life is threatened for exercising my constitutional right to question our CNMI flag,” Quitugua said.
In April, Quitugua set a CNMI flag on fire and streamed it live on social media, declaring that the only “true indigenous people” of the Northern Marianas are Chamorros.
He noted that the “cyberbullies” who threaten him are anonymous. “Why would Facebook allow those kinds of threats? And that’s why I’m headed to the FBI to have it scrutinized.”
He said his advocacy is not political but a matter of constitutional issue.
“Cyberbullies” are threatening him “because I am doing something that is going to affect the [CNMI’s cultural] identity that I’ve been bringing out all these years,” he said.
Last year, he wrote to U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan regarding the indigenous people’s identity that is “misrepresented” by the CNMI flag, which included an image of a Carolinian or Refaluwasch mwar.
In his response to Quitugua on Dec. 8, 2023, Kilili said, “Your concerns regarding the Commonwealth Constitution and Commonwealth law can only be addressed by the Commonwealth Legislature or by popular vote.”
Quitugua said he was promised by the leadership of the 23rd House that his concerns will be included on the agenda in a House session on Jan. 12, 2024, but “they were not discussed, nor were they discussed in the following sessions.”
Up to now, he said, his concerns about the CNMI flag have not been addressed by the CNMI Legislature.
“And now, my life is threatened,” he said.
