\n\t\t\t\tA retiree holds a placard while watching the House session on Capital Hill. Retirees plan to show up again in full force on Thursday during the Senate\u2019s session. (Haidee V. Eugenio)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nFor more than an hour since the session began at 1:30pm yesterday, over a dozen retirees testified in favor of House Bill 18-195\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n
Retirees believe that the bill\u2019s enactment will pave the way for the award of an exclusive Saipan casino license and the release of $30 million for payments of retirees\u2019 25 percent pension and former defined benefit plan members\u2019 accrued contribution interest.<\/p>\n
Only three individuals\u2014Leila Staffler, Ambrose Bennett, and Chailang Palacios\u2014testified against the bill\u2019s passage and urged lawmakers to instead allow voters to directly decide in the Nov. 4 elections whether or not they want a casino on Saipan.<\/p>\n
Bennett said the vote was \u201cnothing more than a political plot against the people,\u201d who already voted twice to reject casino on Saipan.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy motives for this are truly to give people a chance to vote [on the casino issue],\u201d Staffler told lawmakers. <\/p>\n
She said she supports retirees, but she also supports a democratic process. \u201cHad we followed the process, we won\u2019t be here today.\u201d Staffler added that the \u201cbest choice\u201d is to repeal the Saipan casino law in its entirety and place it on the ballot.<\/p>\n
The vote on HB 18-195 came a day after Staffler submitted to the Office of the Attorney General referendum petitions to reject the Saipan casino and electronic gaming laws, with over 4,200 signatures. <\/p>\n
The petitioners are wary that HB 18-195, once signed into law, would kill the casino referendum.<\/p>\n
But with well over a hundred retirees and former DB plan members crowding the House chamber and the front area of the legislative building on Capital Hill, the crowd already knew where lawmakers\u2019 vote would go.<\/p>\n
\u201c3,800 retirees. We are one voice. We are one vote,\u201d read a placard that a retiree was holding while watching the House session. Another reads, \u201cWe need our 25% Don\u2019t delay our 25%. Will you vote with us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will bring a lot of relief to the lives of so many people,\u201d 67-year-old retiree Joe Aldan told Saipan Tribune moments after HB 18-195\u2019s passage. \u201cAfter retirees\u2019 comments, I felt comfortable that the legislators can sympathize, relate to their constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Not over yet\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nGregorio \u201cKazuma\u201d Camacho and Clyde Norita said the process isn\u2019t over yet so they are asking retirees to once again show up at the Senate session at 2pm on Thursday to ensure the bill\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n
House floor leader Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), author of HB 18-195 and co-author of the Saipan casino bill that became law, proposed a floor amendment yesterday. <\/p>\n
The proposal, among other things, gave the Lottery Commission full authority to issue a license and designate the Lottery Commission\u2019s chairman as the expenditure authority for the application fees, portions of which were used to investigate and review the two casino applications.<\/p>\n
After about an hour of discussion, members adopted Demapan\u2019s floor amendment at 3:53pm.<\/p>\n
House members then debated HB 18-195, as amended.<\/p>\n
Vice Speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan) said the debate is not about paying retirees\u2019 deferred pension but about casino operation on Saipan. <\/p>\n
He spoke at length what he described as negative social impacts of having a casino on Saipan, including increased murders, \u201cice\u201d trafficking and money laundering, among other crimes. He said he doesn\u2019t want to be a part of the decision that would allow more crimes to happen on Saipan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is not really about retirees\u2019 25 percent pension. \u2026We all agreed it should be returned to them. The question before us is having a casino on Saipan. \u2026Participation on a monumental decision rests only with 29 lawmakers and the governor,\u201d he said. He asked his colleagues whether they believe Saipan\u2019s power, water, and other infrastructure can accommodate a 2,000-room casino resort.<\/p>\n
The votes<\/strong><\/p>\nThe 15 House members who voted \u201cyes\u201d to HB 18-195, HD1\u2019s passage\u2014in the order of their voting\u2014were Reps. Antonio Agulto (Ind-Saipan), Anthony Benavente (Ind-Saipan), George Camacho (R-Saipan), Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan), Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan), Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan), John Paul Sablan (Cov-Saipan), Teresita Santos (R-Rota), Richard Seman (R-Saipan), Mario Taitano (Ind-Saipan), Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan), Trenton Conner (Ind-Tinian), and Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n
The three \u201cno\u201d votes were from Reps. Ray Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan), Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan), and Vice Speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n
Villagomez later said he \u201ccannot go against what the people did years ago, and that is vote against the casino.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be referred to the people and let them decide,\u201d Villagomez said.<\/p>\n
The two absent members were Reps. Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan) and Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan). <\/p>\n
Yumul and Maratita historically opposed either casino gaming on Saipan or the process by which the Saipan casino bill was passed. The vote could have been 15-5, but that would still send the bill to the nine-member Senate.<\/p>\n
Gonzalo DLG. Pangelinan, a retiree, said that Saipan voters had already turned down casino twice, but \u201ctimes have changed\u201d and retirees need lawmakers\u2019 help to get their 25-percent pension back.<\/p>\n
Jose Naputi Santos, in vernacular, said he used to enjoy a cheeseburger but with the 25-percent cut on his pension, all he could afford now is the burger\u2014without cheese and other garnishing\u2014drawing laughter from the crowd.<\/p>\n
Retiree Catalino Sanchez, for his part, said that people should not miss this opportunity for economic activity. He said he has been reading the newspaper and noted that there has not been a viable alternative to casino that\u2019s been offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have anything to present, zip it\u2026If you say \u2018no\u2019 to casino, why?\u201d <\/p>\n
He said he was livid to learn that the Saipan casino issue could be brought to Washington, D.C. \u201cThat is disrespectful to us,\u201d he said, adding that he sees it as a \u201cthreat\u201d and an act of \u201cbullying\u201d the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the two casino applicants\u2014Marianas Stars Entertainment Inc. and Best Sunshine International Ltd.\u2014were also at the House session.<\/p>\n
The two are vying for a license to exclusively develop a minimum $2 billion integrated casino resort on Saipan with at least 2,000 guest rooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before a considerable crowd of mostly retirees waiting for payment of their deferred 25-percent pension,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":41049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4],"tags":[256,194,928,67],"class_list":["post-41019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-house-bill","tag-lottery-commission","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41019","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}