Kiyu rallies support for CIP projects
Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez yesterday assured support by the upper house on a bill appropriating more than $24 million in Capital Improvement Project funds, saying they stand ready to cooperate with the administration plan.
“This is not the time for petty politics,” he said in an interview as the senator urged his colleagues to vote on the measure in a bid to push massive infrastructure construction in the Commonwealth.
Setting aside some $24.2 million in both federal and local money, House Bill 11-408 was passed by the lower house last week and is currently awaiting action by the Senate.
Its passage came on the heels of widespread dismay among senators on the line-item veto made by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio on the initial CIP bill, rejecting pet projects they inserted at the last minute in fear it would compromise the integrity of the master plan.
But the administration-sponsored measure has reinstated these projects, including expansion of the Rota airport runway and improvement of the Tinian airport, in an apparent effort to please lawmakers.
According to Villagomez, he is confident that the new bill will pass the Senate with no amendment. “We have to get this out of the way and help stimulate the economy,” he said.
Island leaders consider CIP construction as a catalyst to spur the local economy which has suffered heavily in the last two years due to the prolonged financial crisis in Asia, NMI’s main tourism market and source of investments.
Some $154 million in federal and commonwealth funds have yet been used by the CNMI government due to its failure to meet the matching requirement as provided under the agreement on Section 702 Covenant funding.
“These federal grants have been left sitting for so many years,” Villagomez explained. “This is the time for cooperation between the three senatorial districts and the administration to resolve differences on the financing issue.”
A supplemental to Public Law 11-78 which allocated funds for the proposed prison on Saipan and the completion of Marianas High School Gymnasium, the bill will include projects pitched by senators to be added into the seven-year master plan.
It represents the second batch of projects identified in the plan which lists down 50 priority projects on Saipan, Tinian and Rota for release of federal funds and the local matching covering grants from 1996 to 2002.
