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MPLT office plan sparks controversy
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Posted on Jul 07 2008
The Marianas Public Land Trust’s recently approved plan to construct a new office building for its staff sparked controversy last week after a local indigenous rights group cried foul over the agency’s purchase of a private land for the project.
The MPLT, the agency tasked with managing the money generated from leases of public land, is currently housed at the Retirement Fund building on Capitol Hill.
In May, the agency’s board approved a plan to purchase 4,000 square meters of private land and construct the new building at a cost of roughly $700,000. Yet former House Speaker Oscar Rasa, a spokesman for CNMI Descent for Self Government and Indigenous Rights, has raised questions about the agency’s purchase, saying it should have used public land instead.
“The question becomes: Why are they using private land when they have so much public land available?” Rasa said in an interview last week. “In my opinion, somebody here stands to benefit at the expense of the people.”
In addition, the deal raised concerns for at least one of MPLT’s board members, Norman Tenorio, who voted against it. In an interview, Tenorio said the proposal left too many questions unanswered and that the decision to build on private property rather than public land “didn’t jive with me.”
MPLT chair Alvaro Santos, however, said the trust weighed a host of options, including several sites on public land, before selecting the property for the new offices. MPLT chose to build on private land, he said, after government officials revealed any deal for public land would carry a five-year limit beyond which the fund would have to vacate the site.
“We kind of gave up on the public land search after that,” Santos said, adding that the plan still requires approval from several government offices. In addition, he noted that the agency plans to release requests for proposals seeking contractors and architects.
