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Land claimant gets long-awaited $340K compensation
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Posted on May 22 2008
A land compensation claimant got $340,000 from two appropriation bills that have recently been signed into law.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has approved two local measures, which grant $250,000 and $90,200 respectively in land compensation to Jose Ch. Camacho. The amount represents a little over half of the amount due to Camacho, who won a lawsuit against the Department of Public Works in 2005.
The first $250,000 appropriation was taken from funds originally set aside for the Kannat Tabla drainage project. The other $90,200 was from two separate projects of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.: a new steel tank and a sand filtration system at the Saipan International Airport.
A small group of lawmakers has called both measures “special interest earmarks.” Precinct V representatives, in particular, protest the re-appropriation of the Kannat Tabla funds to compensate a single land compensation claimant.
But proponents say that Camacho is ill and has an urgent need for the money, which the court awarded him in 2005.
The Superior Court has ordered the CNMI government to pay Camacho for the 737-square meter property taken from him in 1990. The compensation was pegged at the 1992 valuation rate of $90 per square meter, plus $299,000 in severance damage. The court also ordered the government to pay 3-percent annual interest from 1990 to 2005, and 9 percent post-judgment interest.
Hundreds of landowners are waiting for compensation from the government.
In 2003, the CNMI government floated a $40-million bond to settle private land acquisitions. Only $28 million of this amount was actually used for land compensation payments, with some claimants receiving millions of dollars apiece.
Land compensation cases involve private properties acquired for public purposes, such as road construction, utility easements, wetlands, and other public infrastructure.
