The chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services said “there’s the hope, the desire and that exists but the certainty is not as great as the hope.”
Levin, D-Mich., and U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. and a member of the committee, were here yesterday for more than two hours. They came from Guam and are scheduled to proceed to Okinawa, Japan today.
The two senators were accompanied by top CNMI officials on a bus that toured Tinian yesterday.
Local historian and a long-time Tinian resident Don Farrell, who served as the tour guide, said Levin “was constantly asking about the local economy.”
“He was asking what are necessary to help make sure that the military development in the Marianas will bolster the economy of Tinian,” Farrell said.
In an interview, Levin said the military buildup on Guam will benefit the CNMI but to what extent, “I just don’t know.”
He added, “There’s just too many possibilities and to predict would be misleading and it would not be doing everybody a favor.”
Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos said the presence of the two senators in the CNMI “means something — it speaks a lot about the significance of Tinian.”
Webb, he noted, was here just a few months ago.
“I know that this is not just a fact-finding thing,” said Inos, who met the U.S. senators here.
The Fitial administration and the Tinian leaders, he added, should continue to encourage the U.S. military and “give them more reasons not to abandon us and continue to move forward with this thing,” referring to the military buildup.
Inos said he wishes that the U.S. military will implement the buildup “with speed.”
But he added that he understands the financial challenges the federal government is facing.
Tinian Mayor Ramon M. Dela Cruz said he reiterated to the U.S. senators the island’s willingness to host the military.
“We have been waiting for the buildup for more than 30 years now,” he added. About two-thirds of Tinian public land are leased to the military.
“If Guam does not want the military buildup, bring it to Tinian,” the mayor said.
