HOW MARIANAS VARIETY TRASHES INDIGENOUS GROUP

Taotao Tano’s Greg Cruz says “thousands” joined their motorcade on Sunday. He wasn’t alone in making that claim. Other participants gushed over the “outpour” of support from local residents as they made their way to the villages. Greg says those disputing their estimate only saw the motorcade at the starting and end point, the Garapan Fishing Base. He also noted that the critics are all pro-federalization.

It’s the media’s fault that we didn’t fill up our cars’ gas tanks, follow the motorcade and make our own estimates. But then again, we’re guest workers who are suspected, and apparently with good reasons, of sympathizing with the pro-federalization crowd. Who among the anti-federalization camp would have believed our own, well, guesstimate?

This reminds me about how an expert back home pointed out that there could not have been over 1 million people who gathered at Edsa during the 1986 “people power” revolt. Based on his rigorous computations, the expert said the entire area could have only accommodated less than 200,000 people. Since then, I’ve been doubtful of crowd estimates without a scientific basis. They tend to vary, depending on the political whimsy of who’s counting what.

Here on Saipan, some estimated that 30,000 people massed at the Liberation Day grounds on the Fourth of July. But the island had a population of 60,000 only. So half of them were there, at the same time, on that strip of Beach Road? Really?

The euphoric estimates for the Unity March in December reached “over 15,000.” That’s one-fourth of the island’s population. Those who are anti-federalization said the turnout figures were “exaggerated.” I believed it reached 4,000, give or take a thousand. But then again, I’m supposed to be biased, too. What am I biased for? I forget already.

Here’s what I know. Most locals are either indifferent or non-committal about the federalization issue, more so now that the nonimmigrant status was deleted from the bill that would also create a CNMI congressional delegate seat.

Maybe instead of funding his proposed political status commission, Congressman Torres should call for a non-binding, non-official referendum among locals regarding the federalization bill now pending in the U.S. Senate.

Right now, the only point of Sunday’s Taotao Tano rally that I can see is to shut up local politicians who will dare join Pete A.’s “middle road” approach.