MPLA upbeat about talks with PTI

The Marianas Public Lands Authority remains positive that negotiations with Pacific Telecom, Inc., Verizon Micronesia’s new owner, will result in an amicable settlement, lauding the inclusion of former CNMI Chief Justice Jose Dela Cruz in the PTI panel.

MPLA attorney Ramon K. Quichocho voiced this out Friday, days after the agency gave Verizon a demand letter to pay for some $2.1 million, which the lawyer explained as arrears from past uses of public lands that served as easement for the telecom firm’s underground cable.

Quichocho said the MPLA also wants Verizon to pay the agency some $600,000 yearly beginning 2005 for the public lands easement.

Quichocho said that, while Verizon has yet to heed the MPLA’s demand in writing, PTI has written the agency a letter.

“They [PTI management] agreed to shoulder the responsibility of Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. about the issues,” Quichocho claimed. “I’m guessing that they agree to the MPLA demand.”

The Saipan Tribune asked Quichocho for a copy of the PTI letter Friday, but the agency had not produced it until yesterday.

Quichocho claimed that the MPLA and PTI were close to resolving the issues. “MPLA is pro-business but, at the same time, it hopes that investors will not be anti-indigenous. [Verizon has been] using indigenous lands to make millions of dollars.”

PTI officially took over Verizon’s operations beginning last Wednesday, immediately ending interisland long distance charges for calls within the CNMI.

PTI president and chief executive officer Jose Ricardo P.R. Delgado then announced the inclusion of Dela Cruz to his company’s negotiating panel, expressing optimism that the former magistrate could help the parties reach a settlement.

The MPLA has withheld its decision to give its consent to the transfer of some four land leases from MTC to PTI. Of the 11 land leases Verizon has with the MPLA, Quichocho said four of them explicitly require the agency’s consent to their assignment from the original lessee.

Another issue being discussed in the negotiations is the renewal of Verizon’s lease for its Susupe facility, which Quichocho recently described as very close to being settled. Also being negotiated is a permit agreement for public lands easement for Verizon’s underground cable.

This end of interisland long distance charges came about pursuant to a settlement agreement that PTI and MTC entered into with Gov. Juan N. Babauta and CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell before the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission finally approved the multi-million-dollar sale.

The agreement also provided that there would be no local rate hike for two years from the transaction’s closing and that PTI would invest a minimum of $20 million in capital expenditures during the next five years.

The company earlier said it would join the National Exchange Carrier Association. The parties expected PTI’s membership to NECA to provide assistance to rate and tariff development, industry database management, compliance auditing, economic forecasting, trend analysis and regulatory policy analysis.

PTI maintained Verizon’s management and staff. Delgado also disclosed plans to put up a new customer service center that will house an Internet station, an additional facility to the existing customer service center on Middle Road, Chalan Laulau.