Spat brews over quarry materials

Saipan Mayor Ramon Blas “RB” Camacho and Public Lands Secretary Teresita A. Santos

Saipan Mayor Ramon Blas “RB” Camacho and Public Lands Secretary Teresita A. Santos appear to be headed for a standoff over quarry materials and the Saipan Mayor’s Office’s need for the coral aggregate it needs to fix secondary roads in the municipality.

In fact, Santos said yesterday that DPL has not encountered nor experienced any issue in the extraction and delivery of quarry materials with former mayors, and only this time with with Camacho.

Camacho himself told Saipan Tribune yesterday that he is not fighting with Santos and only requests for DPL to negotiate with the quarry operators to load the Saipan Mayor’s Office’s dump truck with finished quarry materials for free. Camacho said he is sending their dump truck to the quarry sites and he wants the quarry operators to load the quarry materials onto the truck since the Saipan Mayor’s Office does not have the machinery for this. The mayor also said he does not want the operators to deliver the quarry materials to the project sites because his office has the dump truck.

Santos pointed out that Article II of the Temporary Occupancy Agreement issued to quarry operators does exempt CNMI government agencies from paying any charges for quarry materials that are extracted from the quarry site being operated by the permittee under a valid permit.

However, Santos said, the government agency is responsible for any and all costs associated with such extraction, to include heavy equipment rental for the extraction, loading and delivery from the quarry site to a project site.

Further, she said, processed materials are excluded from this provision and will be charged accordingly by the quarry operator.

In response to Saipan Tribune’s inquiry, Santos said yesterday that the mayor is allowed or authorized to get raw materials of 100 cubic yards per annum per quarry at no cost.

In line with this, Santos approved last July 11 Camacho’s request to avail of the public benefit of DPL’s permitted quarries. However, “if he wants to get processed materials, then he would have to pay the quarry company since processed materials are not covered under the public benefit provision of the quarry permit,” Santos added.

Last July 10, Camacho wrote Santos to seek access to quarries to facilitate the road repair and improvement in villages. Camacho invoked Article 11 of the TOA, exempting the Saipan Mayor’s Office from paying any charges for quarry materials, on the reasoning that his office does not have financial means to pay for “public property to be used for public services.”

In approving Camacho’s request, Santos said the quarry permittees will be notified of DPL’s approval to allow the Office of the Mayor of Saipan to obtain from each quarry permittees, 100 cubic yards of coral or raw materials, annually and free to charge, for its roadway projects and for other public purposes.

The six quarry permittees are Construction Material & Supply Inc. in Kannat Tabla, Resource Management International Corp. in As Matuis, Success International Corp. in As Matuis, USA Fanter in Kannat Tabla, Hong Ye Rental in Dandan, and JG Sablan Quarry in As Matuis. Hong Ye Rental and JG Sablan Quarry are currently not operating.

Santos commends Camacho’s enthusiasm and passion to enhancing community, specifically the repair and improvement of secondary roads within the villages.

“We understand and support your vision of providing convenience for the residents and to ensure that responding emergency vehicles can easily and swiftly respond to emergencies,” the secretary said.

Camacho said yesterday that his office was billed last June for $79,000 to $90,000 by three quarry operators for the coral aggregates that his administration had obtained. He said he read the law about the community benefit so he does not want to pay a penny.

“The CNMI is broke,” Camacho said.

The mayor said that DPL should negotiate with the quarry operators to have some sort of an offsetting arrangement with DPL.

Camacho also stated that he wants the finished quarry materials as he does not want to bring huge rocks to road improvement sites.