The CNMI government has not been complying with a 2006 law that requires the creation of a five-member Public Lands Advisory Board that is supposed to be making recommendations to the Department of Public Lands secretary on the approval of public land leases involving more than 5 hectares.<\/p>\n
This is according to a Senate resolution that senators adopted yesterday.<\/p>\n
But Department of Public Lands Secretary Oscar M. Babauta, in an interview last night, said the Senate resolution is \u201cmoot\u201d because that law\u2019s provision requiring a Public Lands Advisory Board was later amended to abolish the board.<\/p>\n
Babauta, a former speaker, said he would be more than willing to clarify this matter with the Senate.<\/p>\n
Sen. Juan Ayuyu (Ind-Rota) said that since the enactment of Public Law 15-2, DPL has been operating under the sole discretion of the DPL secretary without the benefit of a Public Lands Advisory Board.<\/p>\n
He said the DPL secretary has recommended approval of public land leases, worked on a public land use plan, and developed homestead programs without any recommendation or consultation from a board as the law requires.<\/p>\n
To initiate compliance with the law, Ayuyu introduced a resolution yesterday that urges the mayors of Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and the Northern Islands to appoint a member to the Public Lands Advisory Board, and the municipal councils of each respective senatorial district to act on such appointments.<\/p>\n
Senators adopted Ayuyu\u2019s Senate Resolution 17-69, Senate Draft 1. That amendment was offered by Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota).<\/p>\n
Of the five members of the board, one should come from Saipan, one from Tinian, one from Rota, and one from the Northern Islands. The fifth member shall be a Commonwealth resident selected by the governor.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s responsibilities include recommending approval of public land leases involving more than 5 hectares of public land, approving a comprehensive public land use plan for the CNMI, and consulting with the DPL secretary on homestead programs.<\/p>\n
At yesterday\u2019s session, senators adopted Manglona\u2019s offered amendment seeking to ensure that the Senate will not approve public land leases involving more than 5 hectares of public land \u201cunless the Public Land Advisory Board is given an opportunity to review and make a recommendation on the proposed public land lease.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDPL\u2019s mandates regarding public lands in the CNMI are a monumental task and should be implemented by the Secretary in consultation with a Public Lands Advisory Board,\u201d the resolution says.<\/p>\n
But the DPL secretary reiterated that PL 15-2, which established DPL, was later amended to abolish the advisory board. DPL\u2019s predecessor, the Marianas Public Lands Authority, had a board of directors. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI government has not been complying with a 2006 law that requires the creation of a five-member Public Lands Advisory Board that is supposed to be making recommendations to the Department of Public Lands secretary on the approval of public land leases involving more than 5 hectares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}