5. Froilan Tenorio
Froilan Cruz Tenorio (born September 9, 1939) is a Northern Mariana Islander politician as the member of CNMI Democratic Party, and also was the fourth elected Governor of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Elected in 1993, he served one term, leaving office in 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 Covenant Party.
In May 2009, Tenorio announced that he had joined the Covenant Party and was allied with Governor Fitial. Rather than seeking the gubernatorial post again, Tenorio ran for a seat in the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, hoping to represent Precinct 1.
Tenorio ran on a platform of increased government investment in tourism, reform of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, and economic growth through job creation and increased purchasing power for residents, favoring job creation through new construction projects.
He later said in an interview that if elected he would seek to restore the earned income credit, an anti-poverty program implemented by his administration in the 1990s, to increase employment and purchasing power. Tenorio won the election and was subsequently selected for the post of Speaker of the House.