Rota residents driving a long way to the island\u2019s only ATM only to find it broken can now heave a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n
Bank of Guam is reportedly shipping a replacement unit to the island, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan.<\/p>\n
While admitting that ATM problems on the southernmost island of the CNMI is not a federal issue, Sablan said he wants to be the first to announce the good news that Rota residents are not entirely being neglected by Bank of Guam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ATM situation is not really a federal issue. But, of course, I was concerned, so I contacted the Bank of Guam. I understand that they tried to fix the machine, but it is too water-damaged by the typhoon. So the bank has positioned a replacement unit here on Saipan and they are just waiting for the weather to break so it can be shipped to Rota. They are also sending a technician to install the new ATM and, I am told, he is going to stay there until the ATM arrives and is running,\u201d he said in an email to Saipan Tribune yesterday.<\/p>\n
The delegate said he deeply sympathizes with the people of Rota on the non-working ATM at the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a shame that there is only one ATM on Rota. It makes the island very vulnerable to this kind of disruption. There used to be a second ATM at the Benjamin T. Manglona International Airport, but I understand that the Commonwealth Ports Authority had the bank remove it to make way for other uses and that the bank was not able to find another secure location.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also gave credit to Bank of Guam for its initiative to send a replacement ATM unit to the island. <\/p>\n
\u201cMs. [Denise Tanya] King deserves credit for bringing attention to the ATM problem. But I know that the CEO of the Bank of Guam is married to a woman from Rota and the bank\u2019s CFO is from Rota. So these are not people who will forget Rota. With their quick response on the new machine and sending in a technician they are demonstrating their commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan said he thinks about the difficulties of life on Rota all the time and what he can do as a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives to make life better for people there. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I worked so hard to get food stamp benefits raised for Rota\u2014by 62 percent\u2014because food is so expensive. That\u2019s why I continue to work on legislation that could lead to a Rota National Park, because we have to provide a permanent and solid basis for Rota\u2019s economy. And I strongly feel that Rota has a great potential for ecotourism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rota residents driving a long way to the island\u2019s only ATM only to find it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[1248,51,21,67],"class_list":["post-181678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-atm","tag-guam","tag-life","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181678","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}