{"id":278425,"date":"2018-06-19T06:06:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T20:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=278425"},"modified":"2018-06-19T06:06:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T20:06:16","slug":"clearing-of-pagan-runway-eyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/clearing-of-pagan-runway-eyed\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearing of Pagan runway eyed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A World War II-era Japanese fighter plane lies rusting on the side of the\u00a0runway on Pagan Island. Plans to clear the runway to accommodate flights to the island is underway. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PAGAN\u2014Pagan Island in the Northern Islands has remained cut off for many years because there is only one mode of transportation available to reach it\u2014by boat. <\/p>\n

Its 200-mile distance from Saipan translates to 20 hours of sea travel to Pagan and the boat trip is not regular, highly dependent as it is on the weather. That has made urgent the request of Northern Islands residents to have the air strip on Pagan rebuilt.<\/p>\n

According to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, a plan to clear the runway on Pagan is in the pipeline. \u201cWe have been working with the Commonwealth Ports Authority and Federal Aviation Administration about that. In the next couple of weeks, I should be holding a meeting with CPA to ask an update on that project up north regarding the runway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres said his office has been meeting with the Northern Islands Mayor\u2019s Office and their priority is establishing reliable transportation between Saipan and Pagan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard up north especially with the bad weather in September and October, that is why it\u2019s very difficult to have a vessel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The CNMI government\u2019s next option is to develop an airport there. However, Torres acknowledges that the Pagan runway has to at least be cleared to obtain Federal Aviation Administration approval.<\/p>\n

Torres is very much aware of the challenges that face Pagan. He has been on trips to the island starting when he was a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad has been going there in the mid-\u201970s and encourages us boys in the family to go up north. Now I want to bring my kids and the first lady sometime in our lives as I would like us to spend one whole summer there because it is something that our children will enjoy and must experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to preserve Pagan\u2026 I actually encourage legislators to go up north to experience the islands first-hand\u2014not to just land on it but walk around, see the natural beauty and many resources of the island so that they will know exactly what they are fighting for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

An agricultural homestead is being finalized as a means for Pagan\u2019s economic development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the Department of Public Lands sent a surveyor down there last year and early this year. We want to establish a settlement, whether agricultural homestead or homestead program, but between the two, agricultural is easy to do at this point,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful island and I love it up there. I am hoping to have that offered to the community,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Defense eyes Pagan as a venue for U.S. military training and reports claim that the Pentagon wants to use the island for target practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the military came and showed interest, I told them it\u2019s not just an island for you to do training. This island is sentimental to us. It\u2019s not just \u2018let\u2019s bomb it\u2019\u2026it\u2019s definitely more than that because it\u2019s about preserving it for our future, for the new generation,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is, how can we make it work? If the military is coming, how can we still sustain the beauty of the island and we have to determine what kind of military training is acceptable to the island\u2026We are not saying we don\u2019t want military here. What we are saying is, what kind of training is acceptable for the community? So far, the proposed training style is not acceptable,\u201d Torres added.<\/p>\n

Torres is aware of the vulnerability of the Northern Islands in terms of the presence of illegal fishing by both U.S. and foreign vessels. That\u2019s why he supports the idea of establishing a sanctuary in the Northern Islands, similar to the Marianas Trench Marine Monument.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need enforcement and, right now, we don\u2019t have the resources to go after those illegal fishing vessels that are coming in. The U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s priority is provide safety as when they respond to distressed vessels or if someone is drowning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to have our own vessel that can monitor those vessels and I hope that someday we will have the resources to do that. \u2026Maintaining a vessel in that capacity such as maintaining the crew, insurance, and gas cost a lot. We are also looking at our crew\u2019s safety once we get on board on those illegal fishing vessels. These are the issues that we are addressing now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAGAN\u2014Pagan Island in the Northern Islands has remained cut off for many years because there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":278431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[1002,200,2512,1742],"class_list":["post-278425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-military","tag-northern-islands-mayor","tag-pagan-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278425","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}