The $23 million for live-fire ranges in the CNMI that was discussed in early negotiations between past administrations and the U.S. military is too low a figure compared to the reported $6 billion that Guam is getting in infrastructure projects for a planned military buildup in coming years, according to Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan).<\/p>\n
These numbers were discussed during a Natural Resources Committee meeting Tuesday, where lawmakers mulled a Senate bill to prohibit the Department of Public Lands from leasing land for U.S. military purposes.<\/p>\n
The genesis of that bill comes out of protest of the U.S. military\u2019s proposed high-impact live fire ranges on Pagan and Tinian. S.B. 19-42 is authored by Sen. Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan), former secretary of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n
Members of the House Committee on Natural Resources discussed Tuesday whether the bill would foreclose the opportunity to negotiate with the military.<\/p>\n
For one, if the CNMI received the nearly $6 billion or $7 billion the government of Guam has reportedly gotten for the military base in Guam, then that \u201cwould fix all our problems,\u201d said Rep. Anthony Benavente (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n
Demapan agreed with the benefits but noted that the military in early negotiations did not propose an acceptable plan.<\/p>\n
Demapan was press secretary of Gov. Eloy S. Inos and then-governor Benigno R. Fitial.<\/p>\n
According to Demapan, the \u201chighest\u201d offer the CNMI government got from the U.S. military was $23 million.<\/p>\n
Demapan said if the military had proposed a more formidable plan for Pagan it may have been accepted.<\/p>\n
He noted that Guam would get billions \u201cwhen the damage is going to be done here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHeaven\u2019s falling in Guam but not here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The $23 million for live-fire ranges in the CNMI that was discussed in early negotiations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,51,200,8457],"class_list":["post-215831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-guam","tag-military","tag-natural-resources-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215831","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=215831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}