No ‘strip mining’ on Pagan

To Mr. William F. Cruz of Shorewood, WI, there is no “issue of strip mining Pagan.” That was a figment of Cinta Kaipat’s imagination. After returning from law school and frustrated by her inability to pass the bar exam, Ms. Kaipat found herself trapped behind a desk in the Department of Labor. She needed publicity in order to achieve her goal of winning a seat in the Legislature. To gain notoriety, she decided to attack the one company that could make her father’s dream come true, the economic development of Pagan. She created PaganWatch, an underground, unsubstantiated misinformation site. She used it to confuse the minds of the public with Hollywood visions of the evil people destroying Pagan by strip mining, including us, the locals that are going to manage the company.

As everyone with an independent brain understands, there is no need to strip mine Pagan in order to extract the pozzolan. Pozzolan is one of the materials that is sometimes thrown out of a volcano during an eruption. In fact, the pozzolan will be removed from the surface, being as careful as possible not to scoop up whatever dirt might be beneath it. Soil, if it exists under the blanket of pozzolan is a contaminant to the pozzolan shipment. In fact, we have contracted with a local Ph.D. experienced in volcanic soils to help reclaim the land as the pozzolan is scraped clear.

Ms. Kaipat also grossly misrepresented the profit sharing that will occur between Azmar and the government as the pozzolan is extracted. After all expenses are taken into account, the split is virtually 50-50. The government, the people, will get their half with no risk. Azmar bears all the cost and all the risk. It would have been very helpful if Ms. Kaipat had taken Economics 101 somewhere along the way. It would have taught her that a sale of a product is not all profit. Things like operational expenses, heavy equipment purchases, employee’s salaries and benefits, and a whole host of other stuff go into the cost of sales before profits are split, especially when roads, an airport and a dock need to be built.

Azmar is certainly not out of the game. We have just been respectfully quiet since the Dec. 3 fiasco in the Sablan Building, writing to the chairwoman of the board, the governor and the Senate and asking for their support to re-open negotiations. Why? The day of the vote on the Azmar permit, everyone of the board members expressed their regret at having to vote to deny Azmar’s permit application because they felt Azmar had not supplied all the information they had requested. Little did they know that Ana Castro had kept a vital document secret from them.

Those who have followed the Azmar issue will remember that the governor presided over a unique meeting during the September investor’s conference in Los Angeles, between Mr. Kenneth James Moore, Azmar’s chairman/CEO, Azmar’s chief operating officer Mr. Greg Whitehorn, MPLA board chair Ana Castro and five members of the Senate. After that meeting, and at the direction of Governor Babauta, Mr. Moore and Mr. Whitehorn met with Mrs. Castro and Mr. Eliptico to “iron out the details.” It was agreed that Azmar would provide the following confidential information:

1) Official name of business
2) Corporate papers
3) Charter and bylaws
4) Business license
5) Federal Tax I.C. number
6) Corporate Resolutions, if applicable
7) Personal Financial Statement of Kenneth James Moore, and
8) A revised pro forma, if MPLA feels it is necessary.

Other reasonable information, such as the names of our buyers, would be supplied after we made our initial sale of pozzolan, within 90 days.

Mr. Whitehorn memorialized this agreement in a message to Ana Castro on Sept. 29. She replied the same day, stating “Yes. We confirmed to that. I have moved the Special Board meeting for 10/07/04. Please work on this documents ASAP. I want to entertain this matter on this date. If you aren’t able to provide these documents, let me know, I can schedule another special board meeting.”

I have given copies of these documents, and our proof that we supplied all the necessary information to the governor and the Senate. We supplied all those documents before Oct. 7. That meeting did not take place. Instead, a meeting was held some time later and the Sept. 29 agreement was never mentioned by chairwoman Castro. We never heard from Mrs. Castro again. What happened?

When I showed MPLA vice chair Manny Villagomez and member Felix Sasamoto these documents, both told me it was the first time they had seen them and that they never would have voted as they did on Dec. 3 had they seen them.

During the special board meeting that finally occurred in November, at which time no public comment was allowed, Mrs. Castro continued to ask for Azmar to provide the entire list of information that had been presented to Azmar on Sept. 15, before the L.A. conference, including the names of our buyers, investors and suppliers. MPLA has not yet revoked J.G. Sablan’s permit. He has stated repeatedly he is still looking for a buyer. And, MPLA want us to give them the name of our buyer. That just isn’t going to happen. We are not stupid people. Mrs. Castro kept harping on Azmar making a deposit in a “local” bank. We didn’t know she meant her bank! That isn’t going to happen either.

Bottom line is this. We have done everything by the books. We have not stooped to bribery. Our permit was properly filed. We have supplied all the information necessary for MPLA to make a responsible, informed decision. We have certainly supplied far more than any of the other three companies that have been granted permits.

The other three companies were given nothing more than a modified coral pit permit, without a hassle. None of them faced the grilling we have. All three other companies planned on using foreign labor. Azmar is committed to employing only U.S. citizens.

None of the other three companies offered to do anything for the former residents of Pagan. We offered from the very beginning to spend $3.5 million building a new community there. Is the problem because we are an all-American team, including indigenous Americans?

Cinta Kaipat and Ana Castro have cost the CNMI no less that $2 million that would have already been accrued by MPLA and the CNMI general fund if our permit had been approved in a timely fashion. We deserve the opportunity to prove ourselves to the public after lies have been spread about us and our project, such as “strip mining.”

All we are asking for is the same chance the others received to extract the pozzolan from Pagan. I especially want the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in working with the real people of Pagan to build a new village on their home island, including their school.

We are hoping that the CNMI elected leadership will take the appropriate action necessary to resolve the problems at MPLA and bring this unfortunate and expensive melodrama to a successful ending.

Don A. Farrell
Marpo Heights, Tinian