Opposition to funding bill saddens Reyes

Senate President Pete Reyes said he was saddened with Rep. Tina Sablan’s opposition to the passage of a bill that would allocate $4.8 million in projected poker fee revenue to several programs and projects.

“It’s sad that one member of [the Legislature] is going to vote no on all these programs for our young people,” Reyes told Saipan Tribune. “I can’t believe anyone would vote against something this good.”

He said that, when the time comes, lawmakers will have to justify why they choose to act a certain way on issues.

Except for Sablan, Saipan lawmakers voted on Wednesday to pass the $4.8 million funding bill.

Sablan had expressed disappointment with the legislators’ action. She questioned, among other things, the need to construct another baseball field on Navy Hill when it is such a small village and there is already a baseball field in the area.

Reyes said part of the appropriation under the legislation would go to the scholarship funds.

“I’m not going to hesitate to say that I support the bill. Scholarship has been a very high priority for me. As you know I donate all my salary to scholarship,” he pointed out.

Citing a Saipan Tribune article on the, Reyes said there is a growing population of students who are availing of the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance.

“Rather than reduce the program, we should increase it and that’s what we did. We increased it by $100,000,” he said.

On the baseball field issue, Reyes said drug use in the Commonwealth is a very common thing for the youth.

“We need to appropriate money to provide as many as we can afford sports facilities for our young people. The baseball field is one,” he said.

The senator said if there is a need to construct two or three baseball fields on Navy Hill he would support it.

“The reason is we need to keep our young people occupied. We need to keep them in sports activities rather than roaming the streets because that invites criminality and the use of drugs,” Reyes said.

On the fishing derby issue, the Senate president said the event attracts many fishermen to a competition somewhat similar to any sports activity.

“In the same manner that we want to build as many basketball courts and baseball fields, we need to also promote fishing and agriculture. We need to have many farmers as we can,” he added.