Amid the divisive talks about a federal proposal to grant improved status to long-term foreign workers in the CNMI, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said the Commonwealth continues to recognize the contributions of foreign workers to the local economy and society.
Fitial signed yesterday a proclamation declaring June Northern Marianas Islands-Philippines Friendship Month, highlighted by today’s 112th anniversary of the proclamation of Philippine Independence.
Majority of the CNMI’s foreign workers are Filipinos, numbering some 20,000.
“Everybody who wants to stay here is always welcome,” Fitial said, although he has always qualified that foreign workers came here to fulfill an employment contract and not to seek citizenship.
He said foreign workers here are protected and respected.
Philippine Consul General Medardo Macaraig, during the proclamation signing, said the Filipino community is thankful for the opportunity given them to work in the CNMI.
Macaraig said the CNMI and the Philippines share the same historical bond as both struggled for freedom, and that bond was sealed by economic partnership.
“These bonds shall never cease between the CNMI and the Philippines,” Macaraig said as he and Fitial were surrounded by members of the Filipino community in traditional Filipino attire, the barong tagalog.
After the ceremony, Fitial told Macaraig that Filipinos in the CNMI “understand and respect the meaning of respect.”
“The only people who are creating all these confusion are the activists.who are not Filipinos. You can quote [me on] that,” Fitial told Saipan Tribune.
Fitial, before signing the proclamation, shared a light moment with representatives of the Filipino community, saying there’s a new similarity between the Philippines and the CNMI.
“My name is Benigno, and your new president is also named Benigno (“Noynoy” Aquino III),” Fitial said, as laughter erupted in the governor’s conference room on Capital Hill yesterday morning. Aquino was sworn into office on Wednesday.
He also said that paragraph four of the proclamation-that some Filipinos have become members of CNMI families through marriage-also speak about him. Fitial is married to Josie Fitial, a native of Nueva Ecija in the Philippines.
Fitial said he will never have ill-feelings toward foreign workers, pointing out that he-as a former lawmaker-was the one who introduced the bill that became law to allow foreign workers to come to the CNMI. That law is Public Law 3-66.
“We needed to expand the economy but we didn’t have enough labor so we brought in foreign labor. .Without labor, you can’t produce,” he told Philippine Consulate General officials and other representatives of the Filipino community.
In an interview later, Fitial said “anybody who wants to be friends with the CNMI will always be respected and protected.”
Both the Philippines and the Northern Marianas were colonized by the Spaniards, and as a result, both share the same Christian faith.
In the early ’80s, a large number of Filipinos and other foreign workers were brought in to the islands to work mostly in private sector businesses and this led to the success of the tourism and garment industries.
Source: Saipan Tribune
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