Froilan Tenorio

Froilan Cruz "Lang" Tenorio (September 9, 1939 – May 4, 2020) was a Northern Mariana Islander politician who was the fourth governor of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Tenorio graduated from the Territorial College of Guam in 1962 with an associate's degree before earning a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Marquette University in 1967.

Tenorio was subsequently employed by the Los Angeles, California department of public works.

In 1972 he was hired by the Micronesian Construction Company.

He founded his own construction company two years later.

Tenorio's early career in elective office consisted of one term as a CNMI Senator and three two-year terms as Washington representative.

He first ran for governor in 1989.

In 1993 he ran again and won.

Tenorio governed as a fiscal conservative in several ways.

He warned the legislature against increasing spending without accompanying measures to increase revenue.

However, the legislature implemented an earned income credit which was repealed after Tenorio left office because there were not enough funds to pay for it.

Tenorio frequently battled with the Republican-dominated legislature during his term.

His first executive order was a sweeping reorganization of the commonwealth government that was contested by both litigation and by the legislature.

It was eventually put into effect.

The Republican legislature also frequently rejected Tenorio's appointments; Alexandro C. Castro, who was twice Tenorio's Supreme Court nominee, was twice rejected by the legislature.

He was later appointed successfully to that court by Tenorio's successor, Pedro P. Tenorio, a Republican.

As Governor, Tenorio was a fierce opponent of federal legislation that would have extended federal minimum wage and immigration laws to the CNMI, which at that time was exempt from those laws.

The predominant industry in the CNMI (outside of tourism) was the garment manufacturing industry, which drew chiefly upon female foreign workers, generally from China.

These workers were generally paid far less than the minimum wage in the United States and were brought in extensively through the CNMI's immigration system, which differed from that of the United States.

Federal legislation signed nearly a decade after Tenorio left office altered the minimum wage regulations and immigration system of the CNMI.

In 1993, the Tenorio administration, concerned that the federal government of the United States might attempt to end the CNMI's exemptions from federal minimum wage laws and federal immigration regulations, thus harming the islands' garment manufacturing industry, hired a firm, Preston Gates, to lobby on its behalf.

Between October 1993 and September 2001, the firm was paid about $6.7 million by the CNMI government, about 72 percent of the government's overall lobbying payments.

Elected in 1993, he served one term from January 10, 1994 to January 12, 1998.

During his governorship and most of his political career, Tenorio was a member of the Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands, which was not then affiliated with the American Democratic Party.

However, he later switched his affiliation to the Reform Party, a party he founded.

In 1995, Jack Abramoff, employed at Preston Gates, took on the CNMI as a client.

During his term, Tenorio was praised extensively by U.S. Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, including on the House floor in 1997:

Governor Tenorio has embarked on a bold course to promote economic and political liberty in the CNMI.

The brave men and women who died for freedom at the battle of Saipan would be proud to know that Governor Tenorio has been a true champion of freedom in the Western Pacific.

Governor Tenorio recognizes that the market, and not the government, is the engine of job creation.

Governor Tenorio has pushed forward with a program of privatization, fiscal restraint, and lower taxes for his people.

DeLay and Tenorio shared strong ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and both would become infamous in the Jack Abramoff CNMI scandal.

In 1997, Tenorio ran for re-election in a three-way race.

Ultimately, the nominee of the Republican Party, former governor Pedro P. Tenorio, won the election easily with 45.6% of the vote.

Democratic support was split between Governor Tenorio and his Lieutenant Governor, Jesus C. Borja.

Tenorio received 27.4% of the vote and Borja received 27%.

Tenorio left office in early 1998.

In October 1996, the contract with Preston Gates expired, but the Tenorio administration broke CNMI laws and continued to pay the firm without a valid contract until Tenorio left office on January 11, 1998.

By the end of Tenorio's term, the CNMI government had paid the lobbyists a total of $5.21 million in public funds.

Froilan Tenorio would later switch back to the Democrat in 2005 and then to the Covenant Party in 2009.