\n\t\t\t\tSupporters hold up placards during a road-side waving to express their support for the renewal of Kan Pacific’s lease, which expires in 2018. (Daisy Demapan)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\u201cSometimes public policy is not just a matter of dollars; it\u2019s a matter of sound public policy.\u201d<\/p>\nThus said former governor Juan N. Babauta in urging the Department of Public Lands and the Inos administration to reconsider DPL\u2019s plan to solicit bids for expiring public land leases, which would affect the future of Kan Pacific\u2019s Mariana Resort and Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to urge the [DPL] secretary, we want to urge the governor, the lieutenant governor, to reconsider this policy,\u201d Babauta said in an interview during a gathering in Susupe to support Kan Pacific last Saturday.<\/p>\n
According to Babauta, Public Lands Secretary Pete A. Tenorio has the discretion whether to issue a request for proposal or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe secretary chose to issue an RFP, which, of course, that\u2019s his discretion, but all we\u2019re saying is that while he has that discretion, he could go either way. We\u2019re urging him to go our way,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously he made that decision to RFP because he thinks that you get more money in the issuance of RFP and giving it to the highest bidder,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that DPL is not bound by law to issue an RFP, nor will it violate any law if it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to issue an RFP is a matter of internal policy. The secretary is not bound to issue an RFP. That was a decision made internally and there\u2019s no reason why he cannot make that decision to just give an extension of the lease or a renewal of the lease,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is not bound by CNMI law, he\u2019s not bound by the CNMI Constitution or any other legal authority that I know of,\u201d he said, adding that there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits DPL from giving Kan Pacific a new lease.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that Kan Pacific has been in the CNMI for 40 years and \u201chave gone through all the good and bad times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the economy was down, they were here, they stayed, they didn\u2019t run away,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
With the dwindling number of tourists from Japan, removing a Japanese investor would also not be good, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would not look good in the eyes of the world or anybody else, to be kicking out a Japanese investor and then going to Japan and inviting tourists to come here,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
He said market diversification is better for the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no reason why we cannot support diversification in the economy. The worst thing we can do is to mold a monolithic economy. We want diversification. Diversification makes for a stable economy and that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for. We want the CNMI to be stable, to have different people come here and we can have both,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t believe in chasing somebody out and replacing it with somebody else. Bring them all in and keep them all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Babauta urged people to tell DPL to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and to urge DPL and the government to extend the lease or give Kan Pacific a new lease. \u201cIt is good public policy, sound public policy, to have this lease renewed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the interest of full disclosure, Juan N. Babauta is the husband of Charlene Babauta, property manager of Mariana Resort and Spa.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSometimes public policy is not just a matter of dollars; it\u2019s a matter of sound…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,175,3092,1252],"class_list":["post-214642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-dpl","tag-kan-pacific","tag-rfp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214642","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=214642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}