AS the CNMI celebrates Citizenship Day today, Friday, one of the Commonwealth’s founding fathers recalls that “it was not an easy journey,” referring to the negotiations and lobbying efforts that led to the Covenant with the U.S.
“We spent a lot of time in the basement of the U.S. Congress in Washington, patiently knocking on the doors of each lawmaker,” said former Lt. Gov. Pete A. Tenorio, a member of the Marianas Political Status Commission which negotiated the Covenant with the U.S.
He said he and Edward DLG Pangelinan, the commission chairman, lobbied the U.S. Congress to approve the Covenant, which would establish the CNMI in political union with the U.S.
Tenorio said most of the U.S. lawmakers and their staff knew nothing about the Marianas.
“They did not know who we were,” Tenorio said. “We had to explain where the Marianas was located.”
He added, “Not everyone liked us and not everyone agreed that the Northern Marianas should be part of the United States.”
Among the U.S. lawmakers who voted against the Covenant were Sens. Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, who is now the nation’s president.
Tenorio said most of the “peace loving members of Congress saw the Marianas as a reminder of the world war. Some of them had friends and family members who died during the war. They opposed the Covenant.”
But the Covenant was eventually approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and it was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on March 24, 1976.
In the Marianas, the Covenant was approved by 78.8% of local voters in a plebiscite. The voter turnout was 95%.
Tenorio said joining the Marianas Political Status Commission was one of the best decisions of his life, adding that it is the legacy that he will bequeath to his grandchildren and future generations.
Tenorio said when the NMI was still a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which was administered by the U.S., “we had a difficult economy, and not everyone could travel to the U.S. or obtain the education available to the people of Guam and those in the U.S.”
He said many members of the local community wanted to be part of the U.S., “but many of them also had questions about how the Covenant could affect our culture.”
Tenorio said it took time for the Marianas Political Status Commission and other NMI leaders to “explain everything to the community,” including the Covenant provision that, up to now, continues to protect and preserve local culture by regulating land alienation so that only people of NMI descent can own and buy land in the Commonwealth.
And so “the people spoke for themselves,” Tenorio said, referring to the outcome of the plebiscite. “They wanted the best for the Marianas and the future generation.”
CNMI founding fathers Pete A. Tenorio, left, and Eddie DLG Pangelinan.
Marianas Political Status Commission member Pete A. Tenorio, left, and Chairman Eddie DLG Pangelinan, right, present a copy of the Covenant to President Gerald Ford at the White House.
