MPLA board meeting alarms employees

Despite an imminent move by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to suspend the Marianas Public Lands Authority’s board, it’s business as usual for the board, which has set a meeting on Tinian and Rota later this week. Some of the issues on the agenda reportedly involve matters that would benefit some of its officials.

The scheduling of the board meeting at the Tinian Dynasty Conference Room on Thursday and at the MPLA conference room on Friday alarmed some of the agency’s employees, who urged the governor to immediately exercise his powers to prevent the board meeting from happening, which, according to them, may further jeopardize MPLA funds and resources.

The board’s agenda include the agricultural homestead waiver application of board member Nicolas Nekai, as well as the proposal to amend the annual leave entitlement of the commissioner and chief financial officer, Edward DeLeon Guerrero and David Demapan, respectively.

The chief financial officer is brother of MPLA board chair Ana Demapan-Castro, while DeLeon Guerrero is reportedly a relative of the chair.

“Put a block on this meeting because of the irreversible damage the possible action of the board may do,” said the employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The governor’s press secretary, Charles Reyes Jr., said, though, that the CNMI’s chief executive has no objection to the board meeting, since the MPLA remains an autonomous agency.

Fitial has issued no executive order yet suspending the MPLA board. Reyes said the governor’s legal counsel, Joel Bergma, is still studying the legalities of the matter.

MPLA insiders also lamented the holding of the board meeting on Tinian and Rota, saying that the board member from Tinian, Manuel Villagomez, is currently in the Philippines for a medical emergency. The MPLA board currently has no representative from Rota.

Nekai’s homestead waiver application

MPLA insiders fear that the board meeting on Tinian and Rota would railroad processes on matters involving the claim of Nekai, among others.

In a declaration submitted to the MPLA, Nekai said he has cultivated and used some five hectares of public land in Marpi from September 1974 to 1992.

“I have planted coconut trees, papaya trees, other permanent trees and crops, using about five hectares of public land,” Nekai’s declaration stated. Nekai said that a certain Mr. Attao authorized him to use and cultivate the public land after the latter showed him the property in 1974.

Public Law 11-96 provides for the waiver of any requirement, limitations or regulations relating to the agricultural homesteading program in effect prior to Jan. 9, 1978. “Any person who demonstrate continuous and actual occupancy or use of public land for agricultural purposes prior to Jan. 9, 1978…shall be legally entitled to all the rights and interest of ownership of such land.”

The law also bestows the same right to claim public land on anyone who can demonstrate that he or she would have continuously and actually occupied or used public land for agricultural purposes for a period of 15 years prior to Jan. 9, 1978 under certain conditions. It mandates the Marianas Public Lands Corp.—now the MPLA—to convey public land by deed to qualified claimants who comply with procedures and requirements.

MPLA insiders alleged, though, that the MPLA’s Land Claims Division has yet to conduct an investigation on Nekai’s claim, but the matter has already been included in the agenda of this week’s board meeting. “No investigation has taken place…and there is no evidence yet to substantiate his [Nekai’s] claim.”

MPLA spokesman Ed Arriola Jr. gave no comment regarding Nekai’s claim, saying that Nekai couldn’t be reached for a statement yesterday afternoon.

The proposed leave credits

The agenda in this week’s MPLA board meeting also cover administrative matters that include the “amendment to existing regulation on annual leave entitlement of [the] commissioner and [the] chief financial officer,” based on the agency’s public notice.

MPLA insiders branded the proposal as a “sweetheart deal,” pointing out that the officials who stand to benefit from it are relatives of MPLA’s Demapan-Castro.

Currently, they said the officials’ annual leave credits accrue at the rate of 8 hours per pay period. Under the purported proposal, the commissioner and the chief financial officer may get 16 hours of leave credits biweekly, double the rate of leave credits they earn currently.

“Not even the governor receives that much leave credits,” the MPLA insiders said, explaining that accrued leave credits get paid in the event any of the officials resigns or retires. The MPLA employees fear that the amendment might be applied retroactively, which would result in additional expenditure of public funds.

The MPLA spokesman, Arriola, did not issue any comment about the issue on behalf of DeLeon Guerrero and Demapan. “The commissioner has been in meetings all day long. The CFO, likewise, has been handling his Monday duties,” Arriola said.

The governor wants to suspend the MPLA board and place the agency under his direct control. In a press conference Friday, Fitial said the move is part of his administration’s reorganization plan to suspend most government agency boards to prevent them from wasting public funds.