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Proposed board of public lands
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Posted on Oct 12 2000
The Issue: Legislation to establish an independent board of public lands long overdue.
Our View: It’s a good move to ensure propriety in the disposition of limited public land.
The establishment of an independent board of public lands should have been dovetailed with the death of the Marianas Public Land Corporation (MPLC) several years ago.
But we were a bit too busy with provincial issues as to neglect a vital agency that disposes of fast becoming rare Marianas public land. The proposed legislation, however, should revive such vital agency that would also do away with any potential conflict of interest in the disposition of land.
Indeed, the new board should include membership with integrity. The general public has lost confidence in the last MPLC board given wild rumors of how cronyism has allegedly benefited a few at the expense of the many landless indigenous people.
Rumors also abound where certain people were given more than four hectares of land through the waiver act. It’s an interestingly suspicious case that warrants serious review in that it includes grantees who never qualified for such land via the waiver act or some were even in their teen years when they were granted farming homestead lots.
It is also vital that the various land exchanges be reviewed with forthright honesty and integrity to determine who have actually benefited via fraudulent public land acquisition throughout the Northern Marianas. Unless integrity becomes a working vocabulary in the fair disposition of public land, suspicions (justified or unjustified) would continue spreading like wild fire.
That land has become a scarce resource makes it even more vital that the future of residential homesteads be reviewed and just how far can it go or what can be done to accommodate a greater majority of landless indigenous folks. The proposed measure should do these isles good in the fair disposition of rare public land. We encourage the Senate to give its stamp of approval forthwith. Si Yuus Maase`!
