Guerrero’s out

Cnmi Election

By David North

CNMI Governor Larry Guerrero was kicked out of office in a November election otherwise marked by the re election of incumbents.

Guerrero, a Republican, lost to Demo crat Froilan C. Tenorio, by a margin of 5,197 to 4,144 in the nearly complete returns. Tenorio, who had lost to Guerrero four years earlier, had pre viously served as the Marianas’ elected representative in Washington.

While the Governor was losing Juan Babauta, the sitting Washington rep resentative and a Republican, won another four years in Washington by 4,809 to 4,091; the loser in this race, who also lost four years ago, was Herman T.

Guerrero, a Democrat who had served both as a legislator and as a staffer to Tenorio in Washington.

Governor Guerrero’s runningmate, in cumbent Lt. Governor Benjamin T.

Manglona, lost to Tenorio’s ally, former Justice Jesus C. Borja.

Most of the seats in the two-house legislature were up for election, and the basic Republican majorities remain in place; but two prominent opponent of Guerrero are among those returning to their seats in the House. They are Stanley Torres and Heinz Hofschneider (a Chamorro despite the last name).

These two had an interesting year; first their names and that of another legislator were shot up, though no one was hurt.

Then the Republican party denied them renomination; they were then elected as independents in the November election.

CNMI politics, because of similar last names and shifting alliances, can be confusing. Sometimes it seems that the local politicians have only two last names, Tenorio (the last name of former Republican Governor, Pedro, and of his Lt. Governor, also Pedro) and Guerrero (there is also the retiring Governor’s cousin, Ray Guerrero, who runs the territories utilities authority, and yet another Guerrero in the legislature.) Further, Juan Babauta and his ally, House Speaker Thomas P. Villagomez, had run against Governor Guerrero and Manglona in the Republican primary earlier this, losing by the slimmest of margins. Subsequently Babauta was selected (presumably with the Governor’s support) to fill a vacancy as the Republican candidate for Washing ton Representative, while Villagomez moved up to one of the three Saipan seats

in the nine-member Senate (each major island gets three seats.) It was not an uplifting campaign.

Froilan Tenorio was accused of having a foul tongue (which apparently found its way into correspondence quoted in ads).

The Governor was said to have taken a large commission from Mitsubishi while deciding, as Governor, to buy a heavy duty Mitsubishi generator to beef up Saipan’s perpetually hard-pressed elec trical system. The Governor’s reply was, in effect, that the commission went to his son, and not to the Governor.

One predictable by-product of, the election will be better relations between Saipan and Washington. Babauta, well respected in the Capital, will be able to operate without the handicap of the apparently inept and certainly contro versial Governor Guerrero. The Governor had managed to become identified with an exploitive and very rich garment maker (Willie Tan), had fought to prevent the US Department of Interior from looking at CNMI’s

peculiar income-tax-rebate scheme, and had enraged George Miller, the Chair man of the US House Interior Commit tee. (See Trouble in Saipan, PIM , September, 1993.) One of the few real issues discussed in the campaign was the difficulty CNMI had in bringing previously-promised US fund to the islands; the Democrats laid these delays at the Governor’s door. □

Guerrero: lost to Tenorio

THE South Pacific Alliance for Family Health or SPAFH is a regional

non-government, non-profit organis

ation whose primary aim is the promo

tion of family planning and population

activities in its member countries namely the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu Tonga, Tuvalu, Niue and Western Samoa.

These island nations are scattered over the vast Pacific Ocean with different ethnicity, tradition and cultures. Each nation falls into one of the three ethnic groups Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian. The absolute size of their populations are not large by world stan dards ranging from less than 3000 in Niue to almost 3.8 million in Papua New Guinea. But because of the relatively high fertility, rapid population growth is one of the major factors hindering the develop ment of these countries from a socio economic point of view.

In 1985, there were a few population programs in the South Pacific region.

Although the UNFPA was providing funding to the governments of the island nations, much of this funding was returned unspent. A review sponsored by USAID revealed that fertility was high and the continued population growth was seriously threatening the nations. It also revealed the need for developing indigenous capacity in family planning rather than relying on long term continuing inputs from expatriates.

The concept of developing an indigenous regional family planning institution was formulated by USAID and was supported by donors such as UNFPA and WHO, as well as by the governments of the region.

SPAFH was incorporated in Tonga in 1986 with a formal charter and by-Laws.

It became operational in 1987. Its board of directors consists of senior health officials from its 10 member countries. SPAFH’s mission statement is “Community Health and Well being is our Number One concern”.

Since its inception, organisation has been funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which has provided us with varying amounts of funding the principal one being an amount of US$l.9 million for phase one which ran from September 1, 1990 to September 31, 1993, and Phase II (U 551,214 million) from October 1, 1993 October 1, 1995.

However, the organisation was given a big boost to its activities with the approval

of Project EXCEL (Expanding Country

Efforts at All Levels) in 1992 whicn provided a sum of U 553,285 million for five years from July 1 1992. This was to promote social marketing of contraceptives and improve family planning service pro vision in the countries of Fiji. The Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. Of the U 553,285 million, the Australian Interna tional Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) is to provide U 552,613 million while USAID, is to provide U 550,672 million through two American organis ation; SEATS (Service Expansion and Technical Support), and SOMARC. (Social Marketing for Change 11).

Other organisations which have assisted in the past are The Overseas Develop ment Administration of the UK., the UNFPA, the Republic of China and the PNG government.

SPAFH is a recognised player by both the International organisations in the region as well as Member countries and it has been acknowledged by the major donors as a channel of funds to provide service in family planning to the countries concerned. Our organisation enjoys a good working relationship with government and non-government organisations in the countries.

SPAFH has demonstrated its potential to help meet the critical family planning challenges in the region. Its major strengths are an increasingly active and committed board comprising ranking officials of the member countries, installation of viable management and operation systems, grow ing recognition as a major player in the family planning field, an impressive amount of programming given the empha sis of phase one on institutional develop

ment, the ability to respond rapidly to re gional needs, adher ence to its implement ation objective as ex pressed by the Bench marks and its signifi cant contributions to family planning ex pertise in the region.

Significant not only because of its joint sponsorship by

Aidab And Usaid

and to the tune of U 553,235 million over five years, but also it is the beginning of ac tivities which will help further strengthen and compliment the

efforts of others in expanding family planning in the region.

The Secretariat The secretariat is headed by the secre tary general. Others are divided as techni cal and support staff. The secretariat is responsible for the implementation of the organisations programmes and activities.

As of December 1992, SPAFH’s manpower consisted secretary general, five senior project officers fSPO’s), one accountant, one accounts clerk, one administrative officer, one secretary, one steno/typist and one driver.

Recently under Project EXCEL, an Australian resident advisor for the organ isation was appointed with funding from AIDAB. The organisations functions are also assisted through the services of part time consultants, for example in computing and accountancy.

The regional office of the secretariat is located in Nuku’alofa in Tonga. The technical staff are recruited from the region while the general support staff are recruited locally. Because SPAFH is relatively a small and a young organisation, and the fact that its mandate is fairly specific at this stage, the total of staff is quite small.

Project Activities

During the first phase of the USAID Cooperation Agreement, the focus in the organisation has primarily been one of institution building. In addition, SPAFH over the years, has been involved in the implementation of both in country and regional activities. These activities are summarised below.

A. National Population Policies With SPAFH’s assistance, the following countries have now adopted official popu lation policies; Solomon Islands (1988) and PNG (1991). Vanuatu and Western Samoa are currently formulating their policies. In Kiribati activities of a national population policy committee is being reactivated through SPAFH’s assistance.

B. Family Planning Service Delivery.

Contraceptive Supply Management and IBC Activities. A number of in country and regional projects have been implemented in the area of service delivery and the contraceptive supply management activi ties. The total number of in country grants made so far is 32 and distributed as follows

Cook Islands (2), Fiji (4) Kiribati (2), PNG (4), Solomon Island (6), Tonga (3f Tuvalu (1), Vanuatu (5) and Western Samoa (4). Of the 32 grants 26 were to Governments and 6 to Non Government or ganisations. The distri bution of grants by activi ties were: Training/Work shops (63.1% lEC (15.12%), Population Pol icy (20.12%) KAP Survey (1-7%).

C. Regional Activities A total of 14 regional activities, mainly regional workshops have been either conducted or sup ported by SPAFH during

the period 1988-92 giving an average of 2.4 per year.

Non USAID Projects implemented came from UNFPA, ODA (UK), AIDAB (Aust) and the Norman Kirk Fund (NZ).

Future Projections With the achievements in the organis ation to-date, SPAFH’s future appears promising. However, to further strengthen its capabilities as a non governmental regional organisation in family health and population sector, the following strategies are listed -1993 1993 will be the last year of phase one (1/9/90-31/9/93) of the USAID Co operative Agreement Project. As per Agreement, the main emphasis continued to be one of further strengthening SPAFH’s management capabilities as a regional Institution. 1993 has also seen the primary focus shifting more towards greater efforts in the implementation of more family planning activities in the member countries. Project implementation, subject to availability of funding, will continue to be the main emphasis of the second phase of the USAID Cooperative Agreement Project. D

SPAFH secretary general: Dr Ram Narendra Duve