Former chief justice: Repeal Article 12

In a newly authored paper, a former chief justice of the CNMI’s Supreme Court is advocating the repeal of a provision in the Commonwealth’s Constitution limiting land ownership only to people of Northern Marianas descent, saying it is unjust and has harmed the local economy.

Jose S. Dela Cruz, who was sworn-in as the CNMI high court’s first chief justice in 1989, drafted the paper earlier this year ahead of an effort by a recently formed committee of local business leaders—one including Sen. Maria Frica Pangelinan—that he chairs to lobby for a repeal of the Constitution’s Article 12, which could come before voters for a renewal when it expires in 2011.

Article 12, he contends, is a discriminatory provision that deters investors from doing business in the CNMI and has divided the community. Its repeal, he says, could stimulate the economy and boost government revenues.

“If the CNMI is to prosper commercially in today’s global marketplace, it has to be truly ‘business-friendly,’” Dela Cruz writes. “There simply is too much competition going on in the world today….To improve our economy, we must begin using the scarce resources we have; and one of our scarce resources is land.”

Proponents of maintaining Article 12 have said that it is vital for the survival of the CNMI’s Chamorro and Carolinian cultures by ensuring that land in the Mariana Islands remains in the hands of its indigenous people. However, Dela Cruz points to the thriving traditional Chamorro culture in Guam, where U.S. citizens can purchase land, as evidence that the removal of land ownership restrictions cannot destroy the indigenous way of life in the CNMI. Moreover, he adds, fears that local islanders will see exploitation after selling land to outside investors are equally unfounded.

“[T]he important point to remember is that the people of the CNMI, over the past 25 years, have become well-versed with the importance of land ownership,” he writes. “If an individual after 2011 voluntarily chooses to squander his property by selling it and becoming landless as a result, that is his own personal choice.”

And the economic consequences of Article 12 are severe, says Dela Cruz. For example, banks hesitate to give mortgage loans because of it and the number of real estate sales during the last decade has fallen dramatically, thereby diminishing land values.

“When other U.S. citizens are accorded the right to buy and own land, the real estate market will definitely get better because the ‘pool of buyers’ will be much bigger,” the former chief justice notes. “And if foreign investors are allowed to buy and own land in the CNMI, the pool of potential buyers would be at its maximum, and real estate prices for the buy-and-sell of land in the CNMI would then be at its most competitive. This would be an ideal situation for landowners who want to sell their property and make money.”

Based on these issues, among others, Dela Cruz says a repeal of Article 12 is critical to the CNMI’s future.

“[I]n light of our 25-year experience with Article 12, it is neither wise nor beneficial nor fair—as a practical matter, as a matter of public policy and as a matter of law—to continue the land ownership restriction beyond 2011,” he writes. “Its continuation would only further hurt the people of the CNMI by creating a divided community based on those who could own land and those who are prohibited from owning land.”

Meanwhile, one of the members of the committee, David Sablan, added in an interview Tuesday, that Article 12 should also see a repeal because a growing demographic of Northern Marianas descent people no longer meet its criteria for land ownership, including many young people. As people have moved away from the CNMI or marry outside of the indigenous community, he says, bloodlines—one of the defining characteristics to own land under Article 12—have become diluted.

“There are already people who are not eligible to own the land that has been handed down to them by their parents,” said Sablan. “I don’t think that’s fair for them.”