Palacios shared that while the agreement predates his administration, when he saw it, he immediately knew it was going to be a problem.<\/p>\n
Palacios expressed that in order to have a stable concessionaire operating Ma\u00f1agaha, this agreement needs to be made reasonable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any company in their right mind would sign that. That is the No. 1 issue. Are you kidding me? You\u2019re going to sign an $800,000 contract annually plus 9% of your gross? It is important for DPL to take a look at what is reasonable so that we can have lasting operation out there that one, provides safety and enjoyment; and two keeps the place clean for our locals and visitors. The contract could have been thought of differently. I even shared my opinion on it. But this contract was signed predating me so when I saw the contract, I could see that this was going to be an issue and this is probably why the company is having problems now. They wanted to monopolize every activity going on out there and that didn\u2019t sit well with the operators and a lot of the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, Palacios said at the end of the day, the agreement has to be complied with.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, that is an issue that as you all well know, they were having all kinds of problems, and they were having a real controversy with marine operators. But DPL is also obligated to ensure that whatever agreement is signed, has to be complied with. They obviously didn\u2019t pay their rental fee and it\u2019s DPL\u2019s obligation as an agency and representative of the community to make sure that whatever is agreed to is complied with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for Ma\u00f1agaha operations, Palacios said DPL will be on top of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDPL is going to step in, they were already operating when the previous operator left so they already have a crew ready to step in. [As for the] lifeguard issue, if we have to hire a lifeguard, then we will hire lifeguards until we can geta company to operate it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, DPL issued a notice of termination ending the master concession operator agreement for Ma\u00f1agaha with MGI.<\/p>\n
According to the termination letter issued to MGI CEO YoungHee Yoon, DPL acting secretary Richard Villagomez said the termination is a result of MGI\u2019s failure to cure violations pursuant to the concessionaire agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe termination of the above-subject agreement has resulted from concessionaire\u2019s failure to cure the violations within thirty (30) days\u2019 notice as noted in DPL\u2019s July 31, 2024 Notice of Violation letter (NOV). Concessionaire\u2019s deadline to cure the stated violations was extended to Sept. 30, 2024, as requested by the letter from concessionaire\u2019s counsel dated Aug. 28, 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune<\/em> learned from DPL\u2019s compliance division director Greg Deleon Guerrero that the violations include non-payment of rental fees.<\/p>\n Because MGI did not cure the violations cited, DPL has terminated the agreement and has ordered MGI to vacate Ma\u00f1agaha by Oct. 26.<\/p>\n \u201cIn accordance with section 18C of the agreement, you must vacate the exclusive concession area on Ma\u00f1agaha within 15 days. DPL will enter into and upon the ECA take possessions of all of its property and improvements and evict the Concessionaire without the liability of trespass,\u201d they said in the letter.<\/p>\n According to Deleon Guerrero, come Oct. 26, DPL will assume operations of Ma\u00f1agaha\u2019s exclusive concession area while MGI appeals the termination.<\/p>\n Gov. Arnold I. Palacios<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov. Arnold I. Palacios expresses that one of the possible reasons Ma\u00f1agaha Island has not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414320","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=414320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/3e0dcfb26c7f246f7915d949eee64319.jpg\")
<\/p>\n