MPLA: Verizon can afford rent for underground cables

The bill prohibiting the Marianas Public Lands Authority from charging Verizon for underground cables is anti-indigenous and unconstitutional, MPLA officials told lawmakers yesterday.

“[T]his anti-indigenous bill is constitutionally, economically, ethically, grammatically, and politically flawed, infirm, unreasonable, unfair, and it smells bad,” MPLA said of House Bill 14-324.

MPLA board members and the commissioner maintained that contrary to the bill’s suggestion, the proposal to charge the Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. for burying cables in public lands would not drain the company’s coffers.

MTC, which operates Verizon in the CNMI, generates revenues well over $30 million per year and earns huge profits every year, MPLA said.

“MTC is a financially vibrant corporation paying its top executive over $150,000 per annum and making millions of dollars with a huge profit. Hardly a company on the verge of bankruptcy,” MPLA told House Speaker Benigno Fitial in a letter.

The agency also said that if MTC was indeed “bleeding” financially, the company could still go to the MPLA board and open their books to justify a rental reduction.

Further, MPLA reiterated that the bill, if signed into law, would shortchange over 3,000 homestead applicants, who could benefit from revenues from utilities with cables buried in public lands. Being a self-sustaining agency, MPLA noted that its main sources of revenues are the lease and rental of public lands.

“What the anti-indigenous bill can do, if passed and not challenged, is bankrupt MPLA,” the agency said. “If the Legislature can legislate the free disposition of indigenous lands, then theoretically, it could give free land to all the golf courses, hotels, beach concessions, other telecommunication companies, and any person or entity who wants to make lots of money from using the public lands.”

According to the agency, the bill’s suggestion that MTC would immediately increase its rates if MPLA starts charging the company for burying cables in public lands was illogical.

MPLA pointed out that MTC could not increase telephone rates without the blessing of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission. “The CTC’s job is to ensure that the public is protected from any proposed rate increases that are unjustified,” MPLA said.

Rather than prohibiting MPLA from charging rent for underground cables, the Legislature could “reward” MTC for burying its cables by providing tax breaks or subsidy to the company, MPLA said.

“If the Legislature is really serious about rewarding utility companies who bury their cables, such reward should be borne by the entire CNMI, not just the indigenous.

“The bill was also unconstitutional in that it was an attempt to legislate the management and disposition of public lands by proposing to grant an easement for free.”

Authored by Rep. Claudio K. Norita, H.B. 14-324 says that the customers will ultimately bear the brunt of additional costs if MPLA started charging utility companies a fee for underground cables.

The bill also maintains that utilities that take the initiative to bury cables should be rewarded, rather than assessed fees.

“The Legislature finds that the burying of cables utilized by regulated utilities is beneficial to the people of the Commonwealth and should be encouraged. In the likely event that the Commonwealth is impacted by a typhoon, it is essential for the safety of [the] Commonwealth’s residents that communications and power transmission lines remain operative,” a portion of the bill reads.

Further, having cables buried underground enhances the aesthetics of the islands as a tourist destination, as views will not be spoiled by webs of hanging utility cables, the bill says.