The Commonwealth Development Authority aims to take from Freedom Air what is owed them.<\/p>\n
The CDA board approved yesterday a motion to direct the CDA\u2019s lawyer \u201cto pursue the foreclosure of liens on any and all properties and aircraft\u201d of Freedom Air.<\/p>\n
The decision comes amid a renewed push by the Federal Aviation Administration to revoke Freedom Air\u2019s air carrier certificate. Equally, it comes amid competing interest by the Guam International Airport Authority for the airline\u2019s assets in its premises.<\/p>\n
The assets are estimated by CDA\u2014if auctioned\u2014to be enough to cover the outstanding debt plus interest Freedom Air still owes CDA. That amount is some $1.3 million, according to CDA.<\/p>\n
Board chair Diego Songao indicated in an interview yesterday that CDA\u2019s push for foreclosure would leave it up to a court to decide \u201cwho has the rights\u201d to these assets.<\/p>\n
Right now, the Guam airport feels CDA has \u201cno jurisdiction\u201d over the chattel mortgage or aircraft and properties sitting on its premises, Songao said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as we proceed with the foreclosure, the judges will make that decision as to whether who has got the right to access or ownership on those mortgages because we have direct lien\u201d on them, he said.<\/p>\n
He explained this was a \u201cquestion of ownership.\u201d And that\u2019s why they will proceed with the foreclosure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want some answers by the court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune earlier revealed that the Guam airport had found CDA\u2019s lien to Freedom Air assets to be imperfect. This was communicated by GIAA executive manager Charles Ada to CDA earlier this month.<\/p>\n
GIAA essentially found that CDA had not perfected its security interests in these assets, mainly because CDA did not file a financial statement, or UCC filing, with the Guam Revenue and Tax.<\/p>\n
According to GIAA, their failure to do so made CDA\u2019s security filings with FAA moot because state law determines lien priorities. GIAA now believes it has priority over CDA. It was gathered that Ada explicitly stated an intention to proceed with the sale of Freedom Air property located within the Guam airport premises.<\/p>\n
On the FAA revocation, Songao indicated that even if the airline aims to appeal the FAA decision, CDA has \u201cto get ready and secure the liens we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separately, CDA executive director Manuel Sablan said \u201cit\u2019s up to the FAA now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they yank the license, then there goes the viability of the airline,\u201d he said, also acknowledging this was the context of the board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Essentially, there is an assumption that FAA will push for the revocation, he said. \u201cNow CDA has to come in and get after the assets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Based on their findings, if CDA were to dispose of these assets, it would be worth more than the outstanding balance of the loan. On top of this, CDA also has other securities, outside the personal security of the owner of Freedom Air like real property, according to the director in an interview last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Development Authority aims to take from Freedom Air what is owed them. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[366,126,1456,2997],"class_list":["post-200464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-cda","tag-faa","tag-freedom-air","tag-giaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200464","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}