‘Court over-stepping its authority over funds’

Public Lands Secretary John S. Del Rosario Jr. doubts whether it is constitutionally permissible to violate the use of Department of Public Lands funds to resolve land claim issues.

This comes on the heels of a recent Superior Court ruling that found the Department of Public Lands liable to pay a huge sum of compensation to the heirs of claimants whose lands were taken by the government on two occasions several years back.

Del Rosario said the department’s lawyer would review the decision “and proceed from there.”

“The fundamental policy of DPL is homestead development. Land claims was given to DPL, not because it has funds, but because it has the requisite land records to research all land claims,” DelRosario said.

He said this is an important factor that the court has to take into serious consideration.

Last Thursday, presiding judge Robert C. Naraja ordered DPL to pay the heirs of Rita Rogolifoi over $1.8 million in compensation over the government’s taking of two lands in As Mahetog in 1976 and 1992.

In the same decision, Naraja ordered DPL to remit to the court over $500,000 in rental payments collected from respective lessees of the lands under the lease agreements with the Marianas Public Lands Authority, DPL’s predecessor.

In explaining the principle of check and balance, DelRosario said: “Under a republican form of government, there are three equal branches of government: executive, legislative and judiciary.” He said none could arbitrarily infringe upon the other’s authority.

“Thus, I find it troubling that the courts have decided to arbitrarily take over the authority of the Legislature to appropriate funds, which is specifically reserved for the House of Representatives.”

DelRosario stressed that this action makes the judicial branch of government much more powerful than the other two, specifically the preemption of the legislative authority to appropriate.

He said he sympathizes with the Legislature in its inability to appropriate funds to clear land claims “but this dilemma is predicated on the simple fact that revenues have gone deeper south than what anyone had anticipated. Therefore, its inaction isn’t intentional but prompted by this very unpleasant situation brought about by global recession or meltdown.”

The DPL Secretary believes that the only time the Legislature could address legitimate land claims is by raising taxes or by simply waiting for another decade or two for a healthy rebound of the local economy.

“It should also be understood that the segregated funds of DPL is constitutionally protected,” he said.