Rep. Castro: Hyatt’s issues didn’t just happen overnight

Although Hyatt Regency Saipan’s announcement of closure was sudden, the issues they are facing didn’t just happen overnight, according to Rep. Manny Gregory T. Castro (Ind-Saipan).

Castro shared his views about Hyatt Regency Saipan’s announcement to permanently close on June 30, 2024 during the House of Representatives special session last Thursday.

Castro also stated that that the economic issues the CNMI are facing is an accumulation of systemic problems that happened over the years.

Saipan Portopia Corp. president Hitoshi Nakauchi said in a statement that despite their best efforts and after months of careful consideration and exploring many avenues, the harsh realities of the current landscape have forced them to make the difficult decision to close the hotel on June 30. Saipan Portopia owns Hyatt Regency Saipan.

Castro said the key thing that CNMI leaders really need to look at is eliminate the self-interests and mutual exclusivity in the laws and process.

“You cannot address the problem if you don’t look at the historical issues that caused it,” the lawmaker pointed out.

Castro said when COVID-19 hit, the CNMI had almost a billion dollars of assistance, but not every hotel received the same benefits.

He said when the CNMI was paying tourists to come in through travel box, certain hotels were receiving subsidies.

Castro said there are some hotels like Grandvrio Resort Saipan, Saipan World Resort, and Hyatt that maybe didn’t get the same arrangement.

“We have to look at who are the members that are getting the most benefit,” he said.

The lawmaker said when looking at investors, it’s not just about investing, bringing in investors, but also investing from within.

Castro said tourists want local products and local experience.

He said during one of his flights, someone was mentioning to him where to get local food.

Castro said there’s very few restaurants that offer local food.

He said one of the first bills that he introduced was legislation to help small businesses, “but it’s still sitting.”

“And I’m not saying it because I introduced it. But we are trying. There’s a lot of bills in here that we’ve been introducing to help with the situation,” the lawmaker said.

Castro said a lot of these systemic issues are not going to be fixed overnight, so they really have to look at all the issues that have been accumulating over the past and correct them.

“But you know, we really can’t address this overnight, and it takes time,” he said.

Castro agreed with Rep. Marissa Renee Flores’ (Ind-Saipan) statement that with all the money that came in during the pandemic, the CNMI’s economic situation shouldn’t be in this situation.

“We really need to diversify our economy. We can’t just rely on tourism alone. And this goes out to all the agencies. I’m not throwing you under the bus or anything,” he said.

When it comes to public land, Castro said the Department of Public Lands really has to invite investors.

“We can’t look at these same rates and everything. But if we can bring in some of those investors to create jobs,” he said.

Castro also agreed with Rep. Thomas John Dela Cruz Manglona (R-Saipan) that the permitting process needs to be changed.

He said when the Department of Commerce official was in the House earlier, they talked about where are they now with digitizing the application process.

“We introduced a digital economy advancement bill. The laws we have in place some of them are really favorable [to businesses and anyone who live here] especially the tax laws. We get most of our money back for the taxes that we pay,” Castro said.

He said, however, the permitting process does need to be improved.

“We really need to streamline our permitting process and also make it more convenient for businesses to pay taxes,” he said.

Castro said the CNMI pays too much attention to businesses that are cheating.

“And that’s not a new thing. Most of you know it. With all the amount of food stamps that are going in and the BGRT [Business Gross Revenue Tax] is not matching, there’s something wrong,” he said.

Manny Gregory T. Castro