THE life and legacy of the late Edward DLG Pangelinan were celebrated with the launching of his book, “Legacy of a Political Union,” at Joeten-Kiyu Public Library on Thursday, his 83rd birthday.
The event was coordinated by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, the book’s publisher and Pangelinan’s collaborator for the project.
Pangelinan, the first Chamorro male lawyer from the NMI, chaired the Marianas Political Status Commission during the Covenant negotiations with the U.S. He was also the CNMI’s first resident representative to the United States, serving in that capacity from 1978 to 1984. He passed away on Feb. 4, 2023 at the age of 81.
“Legacy of a Political Union” is a collection of his essays and observations about the Covenant and other topics. The book’s foreword was written by former Lt. Gov. Pete A. Tenorio, who was also a member of the Marianas Political Status Commission, and the CNMI’s last resident representative to the U.S. The office ceased to exist in January 2009 with the swearing in of the CNMI’s first delegate to the U.S. Congress, Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan.
In his introduction to the book, Pangelinan described it as a “collection of experiences, opportunities, and contributions that have defined my life as a Founding Father of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
In his remarks at JKPL on Thursday, Tenorio said he and Pangelinan were lifelong friends. They were both born in 1941, and went to school together.
Tenorio underscored how vital Pangelinan was to the islands’ efforts to be a self-governing Commonwealth under the U.S. flag.
“One thing that I would emphasize: without Ed’s initiatives in chairing the commission — and this is from the beginning to the end — we would probably still have a Commonwealth … but it would take longer than the two or three years we spent to negotiate the Covenant,” Tenorio said.
He said aside from the negotiations in Washington, D.C., Pangelinan also worked to “pacify” local opposition to the Covenant.
“Ed was so instrumental in making sure that we don’t have a revolution in the house,” Tenorio said. “[He made sure] people would be satisfied or be given the opportunity to express their opinion as to why they were opposed to the Covenant.”
Tenorio said he himself was not initially “enthusiastic” about the Covenant.
He believed that a single Micronesian federation of Trust Territory districts that stretched across the region would be “OK.” However, when key leaders from Palau and the Marshall Islands informed Tenorio that they would not join the proposed federation, he supported the NMI forming its own government.
At the time, the NMI, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Ponape (Pohnpei), Truk (Chuuk) and Yap were the districts of the Trust Territory government administered by the U.S. on behalf of the United Nations.
“The entire scenario of [the] unity of Micronesians [went] down the drain,” Tenorio said. “The Marianas was very active in trying to get what it wanted — what it always wanted — which [was] to be part of the United States, either by way of integration with Guam or negotiating a separate status, different from what the other Micronesians were dreaming about or pursuing.”
Tenorio said from that point on, he supported the creation of a Covenant with the U.S. under Pangelinan’s “initiative and leadership.”
“Up to now I’m still not convinced that the achievement of a political status that we are enjoying today is an accident. I think something else happened,” Tenorio said. “And one of the key persons that made it happen was Ed Pangelinan.”
During the book launch ceremony, Northern Marianas Humanities Executive Director Leo Pangelinan announced that Edward Pangelinan’s work documents and other personal files that were donated by his family are in the process of being digitized in the NMI Humanities Digital Archive. Several documents are already online at archives.nmhcouncil.org/.
These include copies of his law degree, letters from President Jimmy Carter, and photographs of Edward Pangelinan in Washington, D.C.
This post was originally published on here
