Previous Story
House, Diego to meet on MRC issue
|
Posted on May 14 2004
The House leadership would be meeting today with Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente to iron out issues surrounding the Marine Revitalization Corp. measure.
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial notified members of the House of Representatives yesterday about the meeting, which will take place at 2pm today.
Among others, the meeting would look into how the needed funding allocation of $800,000 could be sourced, the speaker said.
During a session yesterday, Rep. David Apatang clarified that his proposed measure would not dip into the MRC bailout measure that was introduced in 2002; instead, the money would be coming from the Commonwealth Development Authority’s bond interest.
“I want clarification. I am not taking the money away from that bill. It is a different measure and different source of fund,” said Apatang.
Apatang’s measure hopes to appropriate $800,000 from bond interests proceeds to fund the power upgrade in Obyan, Navy Hill, Capitol Hill, and various road-paving projects in Precinct 1.
The House leadership is now trying to find money for the MRC measure. A separate bill was also introduced in the 12th and 13th CNMI Legislature, which proposed to give the MRC an initial payment of $800,000. The total settlement amount is over $2 million.
Benavente is one of the proponents of the settlement agreement that was proposed under House Bill 13-267 during the 12th House of Representatives.
In April 1999, MRC, which is owned by Anthony Pellegrino, sued the CNMI government for various breaches involving the company’s operation at the Outer Cove Marina. The suit was later dismissed and in 2002, the CNMI government entered into a settlement agreement with MRC.
