Previous Story
Congress urged to give 200-mile submerged lands to CNMI now
|
Posted on Feb 02 2014
Barely two weeks after President Barack Obama withheld transfer to the CNMI of five of its 14 islands’ 3-mile submerged lands, the local House of Representatives adopted Friday afternoon a joint resolution urging Congress to recognize the rights of people of Northern Marianas descent to control its exclusive economic zone—the submerged lands and water extending 200 miles around the islands.
By a vote of 19-1, the House adopted Rep. Felicidad Ogumoro’s (R-Saipan) House Joint Resolution 18-1 introduced a year ago.
House vice speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan), the only one who voted “no,” said it is not only “unreal” but also “too early” to ask Congress for control over the 200 miles surrounding the CNMI islands, considering that the CNMI has yet to control all of its 3-mile submerged lands.
This also comes over four months since the enactment of a U.S. law conveying submerged lands to the CNMI.
Moreover, on Jan. 15, Obama exempted from the transfer to the CNMI the control of submerged lands around Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Maug, and Asuncion that are part of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, as well as Tinian and Farallon de Medinilla that are under lease to the U.S. military.
Dela Cruz also said a 200-mile radius could also mean the CNMI is infringing on Guam territory, considering the short distance between Rota and Guam.
“Are we also saying we’re going to go beyond Guam? Saipan to Guam alone is only over 100 miles, how much more is Rota to Guam? I believe this is unreal. Maybe this is an issue that can be brought through Section 902 talks,” Dela Cruz told Saipan Tribune.
HJR 18-1, which now goes to the Senate, requests and urges Congress “to recognize the longstanding ancestral rights of persons of Northern Marianas descent with respect to their ownership of the submerged lands of the Northern Mariana Islands and its adjacent waters.”
It specifically asks for CNMI control over “waters and submerged lands surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands from the mean low tide mark to 200 miles.”
