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Torres to IPI, CLC: Just follow the law
If Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC’s requests to amend the casino license agreement are within the law, then the government should work with IPI, according to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres at his regular radio news briefing last Friday.
Torres said he knows about IPI’s requests but, as of that day (Friday), he was not aware of the result of the Commonwealth Lottery Commission’s meeting last Thursday. He said Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, who is a member of the CLC, has yet to brief him about the meeting. However, at the end of the day, there’s a law that needs to be followed, he said.
“If it’s a regulation that can be amended, then they can go that route. But if it simply requests in order for them to make their payments and it falls within the regulation or within the law, then I advise that we work with them. Other than that, if it’s a law, then we follow the law,” Torres said.
He said he is aware that one of IPI’s requests was an extension on the deadline for the $15.5 million casino license fee that was due last Aug. 12.
During Thursday’s meeting, CLC took out from its agenda several IPI proposals, but allowed it to defer for six months its payment of the $20-million community benefit fund due to “force majeur”—unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone or business from fulfilling a contract.
