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Constitutional right to landownership
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Posted on Oct 08 2008
We disagree with former chief justice Jose DelaCruz’s statement to repeal Article 12 due to discriminatory and local economy analogy. No investor or money in the world would equal our ancestral, cultural, and constitutional right to land ownership in our homeland. We, the Northern Mariana descent people, have a huge responsibility as parents to protect our lands for our children and their future generations.
It’s a shame that local indigenous NMDs of this caliber would advocate such propaganda to repeal Article 12. It seems that this newly formed committee of local business leaders, including Sen. Maria Frica Pangelinan and Efrain Camacho, only represent their own self-interest and agenda; they must have excess amount of land to sell or give away or, most likely, they are in desperate financial need, while 4,000 NMDs are waiting in line for a piece of lot from our homestead division.
We must all remember that it was the business community that pushed our people to food stamp lines and into the backyards for many years. This we must change. We question the motives of these individuals.
Let it be known by all men that so long as Taotao Tano exists, we will oppose and challenge anyone who promotes the dismantling of our constitutional right to landownership as outlined in Article 12. We believe that the outside world, including some of our own local NMDs, are instilling negative propaganda and will harm future generations. This we must oppose and prevent. The business community must respect the local NMDs ancestral and cultural rights to landownership, including our constitutional laws and any other laws for that matter.
[B]Gregorio Cruz Jr. [/B] [I]President, Taotao Tano CNMI Inc.[/I]
