House OKs funding bill for mold remediation, Docomo payment

The House of Representatives passed last Friday a second attempt to appropriate funding to address the mold and air-conditioning issues of the Judiciary’s Guma Hustisia.

The measure to appropriate $8.3 million passed on a vote of 19-1.

Rep. Angel A. Demapan’s (R-Saipan) House Bill 20-165 seeks to appropriate $7 million to remedy the mold and air-conditioning problem of the Guma Hustisia and pay off $1.3 million to Docomo Pacific.

The provision to appropriate $1.3 million to Docomo Pacific satisfies a previous memorandum of understanding between the CNMI government and the company. When Docomo was laying down its fiber optic cable underwater to provide faster connectivity to the CNMI, the CNMI sought to have Rota and Tinian connected to the cable. Docomo pointed out that this would bump up the project cost by an additional $6.9 million. Most of that amount was funded by federal sources.

The remaining $1.3 million, with $650,000 each for Tinian and Rota, is included in the $8.3-million appropriation bill.

However, during discussions, Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) pointed out that an MOU is non-binding in nature, meaning there is no legal obligation to satisfy the conditions within the agreement.

Propst further pointed out several key points, including the fact that the MOU did not specifically indicate that the CNMI would be shouldering the additional costs needed to connect Rota and Tinian and the fact that the MOU was signed without the approval of the Attorney General’s Office, further rendering it non-binding.

According to Propst’s meeting with Docomo Pacific president and chief executive officer Jonathan Kriegel as well as other company executives, the company did not have a contract with the CNMI government; however, Propst was assured that Docomo was open to coming up with a contract.

“I’m not opposed to having the fiber optic cable connecting to Rota and Tinian. We are all one Commonwealth—we all agreed to that. But we have to ensure that, as lawmakers, we follow the law—to the tee,” he said, adding that passing H.B. 20-165 would open the government to a possible taxpayer lawsuit.

In response, Demapan said, “This is an obligation one way or another that the government entered into with Docomo so that the project may be extended to our citizens and residents of the islands of Tinian and Rota.”

Propst questioned whether Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, one of three signatories of the MOU, approached the House in his official capacity as CNMI governor to request for funding to satisfy the MOU. Demapan responded that Torres approached his committee—the House Ways and Means Committee. The other two signatories were Kriegel and Docomo Guam Holdings Inc. chair Koichiro Takahara.

Rep. Francisco Dela Cruz (R-Saipan) said he does not understand why the issue is tied into the mold and air-conditioning issue of the Judiciary, which has caused the Guma Hustisia to close down for 31 days already.

Dela Cruz moved to strike out the provision appropriating $1.3 million to Docomo Pacific. He further proposed to have the provision be a stand-alone legislation in order to garner comments from the Office of the Public Auditor as well as the AGO.

“Let us not try and hold back what the initial intent was, to assist the Judiciary,” he said.

After a lengthy recess, the leadership stood divided during the roll call vote for the amendment. Ultimately, Dela Cruz’s amendment was defeated by a vote of 7-13.

Reps. Donald Barcinas (R-Saipan), Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), Jose Itibus (R-Saipan), Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), minority leader Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), Propst, and Dela Cruz voted to omit the provision paying Docomo Pacific.

H.B. 20-165 passed the House ultimately with a vote of 19-1, with Propst voting against and Barcinas, Dela Cruz, and Itibus voting yes with reservation.

H.B. 20-164, which was also authored by Demapan and also sought to appropriate money from the Casino Gross Revenue Tax to the Judiciary and Docomo, among others, is still held at the conference committee, which is slated to meet on May 21, 2018. Demapan said in an interview that since the Senate had no concerns with the two provisions appropriating to the Judiciary and Docomo, it would be more time-efficient to introduce a legislation that addresses the two urgent appropriations.