OFWs in CNMI join protest vs budget bill

CAPITAL HILL, Saipan – Overseas Filipino workers and their US citizen children in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) joined a peaceful rally to protest the passage of a budget bill that increases lawmakers’ discretionary fund by 50 percent even as many government employees will get up to 25 percent salary cuts. The CNMI government’s collections from taxes and fees have steadily dipped since the death of its garment industry and the continuous drop in tourist arrivals. Malou Berueco, one of the OFWs, said she joined others in protesting budget cuts for education. She said this is not the time to increase budgets for government offices other than essential services. “Lawmakers should prioritize funding for Northern Marianas College (NMC) and the Public School System (PSS), instead of raising their budget," she told GMANews.TV. Berueco, a longtime OFW, is active in workers’ rights movements in the CNMI. Thousands of US citizen and Filipino children of OFWs in the CNMI are enrolled in public schools in the Commonwealth.

Toby Verdaguer, 11, tagged along with his OFW mother at the silent protest in front of the legislative building on Capital Hill. “For the most part, I am here because I want our schools to get more funds," he said. Verdaguer, one of the youngest students to attend the peaceful rally, also held a placard that reads: “Legislators, you are the present and you will be the past. I am the future. Give PSS enough fund for my/our education for a better CNMI." Protesters said NMC, the only public college in the CNMI, needs at least $621,188 more to meet the maintenance-of-effort agreement between the US Department of Education and the CNMI governor. Other OFWs and foreign workers who did not make it to the rally on Friday signed two petitions related to the Fiscal Year 2011 budget bill that the House of Representatives passed on Wednesday and is now with the Senate. Ronnie Doca, board chair of the United Workers Movement-NMI, and other OFWs have been helping to circulate the two petitions. Online petitions will also be launched this week. The first petition asks the Office of the Public Auditor to audit the spending of lawmakers between 2005 and 2010. The second petition asks the lawmakers not to increase their operational budget from $86,796 to $130,000 a year. This is on top of each of the 29 lawmakers’ annual salary of $39,300 and leadership or committee chairmanship accounts. Lawmakers who voted “yes" on the $132 million budget bill said the increase in operational funding will go back to the community in the form of donations to schools, sports events, and cultural events. They said the constitution allows for up to $155,000 in annual discretionary funding. Former representative Tina Sablan, who has also been a strong advocate of foreign workers’ rights in the CNMI, said it is disappointing and inconceivable that lawmakers are giving themselves an over $40,000 increase in discretionary funds in the face of 16-hour work cuts in 2011. The new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, 2010. House Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) said he would ask the Senate for a reduction of the annual discretionary fund to $80,000 but only if the difference will be transferred instead to the leadership account that the budget bill will cut to only $76,330, from the current $400,000. A constitutional amendment last year forces the CNMI government to shut down if there is no budget passed before the start of 2011. - KBK, GMANews.TV