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‘PTI scholarships instead of paying easement fees’
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Posted on Jan 20 2006
The Senate wants Pacific Telecom Inc. to provide local students with full scholarships rather than pay easement fees for their use of public lands.
The Upper House adopted on Thursday a resolution urging the Marianas Public Lands Authority to enter in a memorandum of agreement with Pacific Telecom Inc. providing that PTI award CNMI indigenous students with full educational scholarships in lieu of paying rental fees to MPLA.
Introduced by Senate President Joseph Mendiola, S.R. 15-05 maintains that such an arrangement would “conceivably end the impasse in negotiations between MPLA and PTI and provide an amicable solution to the present dispute.”
MPLA demands that PTI pay easement fees for underground cable lines on public lands. The two camps are currently deadlocked in their negotiations. MPLA has initiated a lawsuit against PTI.
“Avoiding litigation to resolve this problem is in the best interest of the indigenous people of the CNMI,” the resolution noted.
Meanwhile, the CNMI Scholarship program continues to struggle to provide adequate funding for those CNMI students pursuing a higher education, especially in such specialized fields as telecommunications, medicine and engineering.
“It is in the opinion of the Senate that MPLA should consider the greater benefit to the indigenous people of the CNMI when evaluating public lands, rather than placing a strict monetary value on such lands,” a portion of the resolution read.
“[T]he Senate hereby urges the Marianas Public Lands Authority to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Pacific Telecom Inc., wherein [PTI] agrees to provide annually a predetermined number of full scholarships to indigenous students of the CNMI seeking a higher education as compensation for past and future use of public lands,” it added.
The Micronesian Telecommunications laid underground cable lines on public lands in the CNMI in the 1980s. The buried lines ensure continued communications and the people’s safety during typhoons and other calamities.
PTI acquired MTC and its telecommunication assets in 2005.
