{"id":250539,"date":"2017-04-19T06:06:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=250539"},"modified":"2017-04-19T06:06:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:06:15","slug":"propst-demands-statement-torres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/propst-demands-statement-torres\/","title":{"rendered":"Propst demands statement from Torres"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Construction<\/a>
Construction workers of Gold Mantis Construction hold a protest rally yesterday near the Garapan Basketball Court. Although the banner in the photo says \u201cMCC,\u201d the Chinese characters written under MCC literally translates to Gold Mantis. The relationship between MCC and Gold Mantis Construction is still unclear. (Erwin Encinares)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A member of the Legislature has come out and challenged Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and other leaders of the CNMI yesterday to step up and make a statement regarding the ongoing construction firm fiasco.<\/p>\n

In line with yesterday\u2019s Gold Mantis Construction worker protest, Rep. Ed Propst (Ind-Saipan), who was also present during the MCC International Saipan Ltd. Company\u2019s worker protest last Friday, told all members of the media yesterday that he demands a statement from Torres and Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero.<\/p>\n

Propst questioned why Deleon Guerrero was silent on all of the happenings surrounding the ongoing casino construction, going so far as calling it a \u201cblack eye to the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is the executive director of the CCC so silent on all of this? I know that he has been lobbying for an extension on the casino extension and for other things but how can he turn a blind eye? How can he turn away when there are essentially crimes being committed? It\u2019s happening through the casino; sub-contractors should matter,\u201d Propst told the media yesterday.<\/p>\n

According to Propst, vendors interested in setting up in the casino require to submit to a background check along with a lengthy 60-page application just to do business with the casino. Propst asked why there wasn\u2019t such \u201cstrict background checks for local companies doing business with the casino?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is being broadcasted to the whole world,\u201d said Propst, citing major news organizations that have covered the casino construction in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI demand that the governor make a statement; that the CCC executive director start making statements about this. This is ridiculous already. We can\u2019t just turn a blind eye to this anymore,\u201d said Propst.<\/p>\n

Propst told media yesterday that he was working on a formal letter to question CCC\u2019s actions\u2014or lack of\u2014regarding the pressing matters. According to Propst, CCC has stated that the construction workers were not under their jurisdiction. <\/p>\n

\u201cCCC has stated that this is really not their concern\u2014that this is not their area and that this is the jurisdiction of other regulatory agencies. The last time Dept. of Labor Sec. Edith Deleon Guerrero [responded to the protests],\u201d said Propst, later applauding the secretary for responding to the matter even though it was on Good Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the leadership of the CNMI cannot continue to turn a blind eye and pretend that this doesn\u2019t exist; it\u2019s really just insulting that here we are, an island trying to build a casino and yet we bring workers here illegally and are hired through companies that aren\u2019t vetted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Responding to CCC\u2019s claim that they were waiting for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conclude their investigation before CCC begins theirs, Propst said that\u2019s not soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow proactive can you be? You have investigators. You are the CCC. You are a regulatory body. Look at the regulatory bodies in the U.S., Singapore, Macau, and all the other places and see if they fraternize with the licensees. See if they do that. Fraternizing with your very own licensee is absolutely wrong. Where is the code of ethics?\u201d asked Propst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A member of the Legislature has come out and challenged Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":250543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,3126,3339,16420],"class_list":["post-250539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-edward-deleon-guerrero","tag-gold-mantis-construction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250539","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}