Pre-war land exchange body mulled
The House of Representatives last week received a bill which mulls the creation of a Pre-War Short Land Exchange Commission.
Authored by Rep. William S. Torres, the piece of legislation seeks the establishment of a commission that would oversee and resolve any unsettled short land exchanges of private property by the government before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The CNMI has yet to fully account for the unsettled short land-exchange of private properties that were so prevalent before the outbreak of World War II.
The bill states that the envisioned commission will adopt the model of the war claims commission.
Incidentally, the claims for unsettled accounts for short land-exchanges before the war will be apart from the claims already upheld by “war claims.”
Under the model being proposed, the Pre-War Short Land Exchange Commission “will focus solely in identifying and accounting for lands that had been condemned by the US military and Japan, and propose recommendations for a reasonable, fair and just compensation to private landowners in a written report to the Governor and the Legislature within a year.”
The bill also stipulated that the Pre-War Short Land Exchange Commission will be temporary in nature and will be set up within the office of the Governor. It is given until September 30, 2006 to wrap up the processing and awarding of claims.
For its initial year of operation, the bill proposes that the Pre-War Short Land Exchange Commission be appropriated $200,000 or so needed for its first fiscal year, 2002-2003.
