Azmar in denial

It is tempting to ignore Don Farrell’s recent “Letter to the Editor” as a childish, personal attack against Cinta Kaipat not worthy of a reply. But a few points should be made in response to his misrepresentation of the facts.

As anyone who knows Cinta Kaipat can tell you, she is a kind, sincere, and gifted person with a deep love for these islands. Unlike Don Farrell, who looks forward to a huge financial windfall if his employer gets the exclusive rights to Pagan’s pozzolan, Cinta has nothing to gain financially from seeking to ensure that any mining of Pagan is handled carefully and fairly.

Ironically, as Don Farrell tries to spin Cinta Kaipat’s life as a failure, and label her fight to protect her community’s rights as a career move, others in the CNMI community were so impressed and inspired by her story and her work that they nominated her for the 2005 Ford Foundation “Leadership for a Changing World” award, citing her numerous civic contributions as a private citizen. It says a great deal about Don Farrell that he finds it suspicious when an honest, ethical and hard-working private citizen goes into politics. Is there something inappropriate about someone who wants to work for positive change in the community seeking an elected position to do so? Isn’t that what the democratic process is all about?

Don Farrell’s attempts to portray Cinta as an errant daughter who is destroying her father’s dream of an economically developed Pagan is especially insensitive and offensive. Her father, who was murdered before Cinta’s 10-year-old eyes, would certainly be proud of all that Cinta is doing to protect Pagan from Azmar and its supporters. He would never sell out his beloved island to greedy speculators, and would most definitely not condone the use of his honored name to promote their interests.

Don Farrell thinks he can hold MPLA accountable to his personal version of what is required for a permit. Note that the list he cites of paperwork he and his friends are willing to provide does not include a shred of real evidence that Azmar actually has the experience, financial backing or even a nominal understanding of what it means to mine Pagan responsibly. Apparently he expects the MPLA to hand over the permit and hope for the best.

His frequent citing of supposed agreements made by the governor to turn Pagan over to Azmar ignores the fact that the governor has no say in MPLA’s business as an autonomous agency. The governor’s attempts to force an agreement during a trade show in Los Angeles was just an attempt to circumvent the law and bully MPLA into agreeing to issue a permit to an unqualified, underfunded company. The governor has no jurisdiction there and neither does Sen. Joaquin Adriano. MPLA is right to stand up to such obvious attempts to interfere and manipulate.

And aren’t we all getting tired of Don Farrell’s misrepresentation of the value of the pozzolan and the fairness of the profit-sharing scheme? Only by using false low values and ignoring 90 percent of the profit curb can Don Farrell make the deal out to be a 50-50 proposition. Take a look at the Azmar/MPLA Deal Calculator at http://www.chamorro.com/pagan/calculator.html . The numbers don’t lie. Azmar’s so called 50-50 deal amounts to gross exploitation that would have given Azmar billions and the CNMI a few million in “chump change”.

No matter how Don Farrell tries to spin it, Azmar’s permit was denied because they failed to provide the required documentation. They had too many chances over several years with too many extensions. They never produced the required documents and they never will, because they can’t. Their only hope is to get around these fiduciary requirements via help from political friends whose motives for pushing such an ill-conceived scheme must then come into question.

Sorry, Don Farrell, but your company’s failure cannot be blamed on anyone but yourselves. You failed to provide adequate evidence of your ability and worthiness to take on the awesome responsibility of mining the tiny and fragile island of Pagan. It’s as simple as that. Living in denial and stating the contrary over and over again is not going to change that fact.

Peter J. Pangelinan Perez
PaganWatch