“We cannot risk losing an investor—again’

Editor’s Note: The following is the text of the testimony the author submitted to the CNMI Lottery Commission during a commission meeting on Aug. 28, 2018, at the Office of the Governor conference room. The testimony was addressed to commission chair Mark Rabauliman and commission members.

With many of our community members speaking willingly during the CNMI Lottery Commission’s Aug. 28, 2018 meeting, to act on the request of Imperial Pacific International extension, I am respectfully submitting this written testimony in furtherance to my three-minute oral testimony during said meeting.

I am reiterating my earlier public comment: This decision should be easy.

Given what we all have experienced in the past, this is an easy decision—easy because we have an economy to protect; easy because we have seen the past; easy because our government continue to spend millions of dollars to ensure the longevity and survival of the tourism industry that is continually threatened by the competitions; easy because we have a company that is not asking to be paid but is only requesting for an extension.

This company is paying millions of dollars that has kept our economy afloat, kept our services functioning, provide for our retirees much-needed lifeline, provide for our public education the largest funding to support over 10K public school students, and sustain public services that ensures of our continued safety and wellbeing.

We saw what it was like before. Even though we have a strong tourism industry and garment industry back then, it wasn’t enough to sustain our island economy. The death of the billion-dollar garment industry has effectively shut down and or slowed down government services and impacted many in our community. We were left with the tourism industry and, even to this day—with tourism as our main economic mainstay—there are still uncertainties.

While we have a strong China travel market, the situation between China and the United States exposes the potential vulnerability of this market; that China may not be a strong tourism market for us one day.

We cannot risk losing the casino industry like we did when we lost the garment industry. We had the opportunity to salvage the apparel industry back then. Let us not commit the same misstep today.

As a standalone industry, tourism, cannot sustain us.

During his testimony, Alex Sablan made a good point that all businesses in the CNMI, including Imperial Pacific, continue to be subjected to stringent governmental regulatory processes and safeguards. In particular, he pointed out that the CNMI has agencies and governmental bodies that were specifically created to strictly and responsibly enforce statutes and regulations to protect everyone’s wellbeing and this community.

Whether it is Imperial Pacific or any investor or business, violations committed should be dealt with appropriately based on our existing laws and regulations. We have done it with other businesses and investors. Imperial Pacific was not treated differently; they were meted out with penalties and sanctions, locally and federally.

I also agree that Imperial Pacific must and should pay all forms of taxes. Aren’t we all benefitting what this investor has given our islands for the past three years in forms of taxes and fees?

In my humble opinion, we must, however, exercise caution in dealing with Imperial Pacific. It was not that too long ago when we had had similar investment that we ultimately lost. We need to protect what we have now. We should not be too arrogant or too confident in handling the request of Imperial Pacific. If the requirements that we impose on them are too much, we need to consider that. The fact is Imperial Pacific has contributed and continues to contribute so much to our economy that we cannot afford to lose another investment/investor again.

Let us make sure we do not commit the same missteps of the past.

As I said in my testimony, the only surviving industry that we have today is tourism—and it is not without cost. We spend millions of dollars annually primarily for offshore marketing. Competition against world-class global destinations comes at a huge price tag. And here we are with Imperial Pacific, whose contributions have tremendously supported our tourism efforts in the past three years, appearing before us, basically saying “we [Imperial Pacific] will continue to contribute, to be the CNMI’s largest revenue generator and we are not asking you to pay us anything but only to give us an extension.”

To those that decry that we “are not benefitting fully” from Imperial Pacific, at what point do we push and make such determination?

Who should be the ones to make that determination of what it is that IPI can withstand as far as conditions or additional conditions to be imposed before granting any extension?

It can’t just be any candidates running for office, it cannot be just any individuals who only sounds good to some people’s ears.

That determination must be made by qualified individuals and experts. We have the members of the CNMI Lottery Commission, an august body created by statute and comprised by qualified decision-makers.

We also have the Commonwealth Casino Commission, the regulatory and enforcement body independently created by the CNMI Legislature to oversee Imperial Pacific.

These government bodies are our people’s representatives.

Again, I submit this comment mainly because of the fact that we cannot risk losing again an investor. This investor obviously needs such relief after being slowed down, among others, with the absence of qualified workforce that continue to beset the CNMI. This challenge has slowed down Imperial Pacific’s project completion and this situation is not of our CNMI’s doing. Essentially, this was a federal decision and we are fixing this to see Imperial Pacific’s investment going and completed.

This is how I feel about our economy now and how Imperial Pacific together with other businesses have contributed significantly to the wellbeing of our residents. (Diego T. Benavente, Special to the Saipan Tribune)

Diego T. Benavente is a former lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.