The blame game has begun over the failure of the Marine Revitalization Corp. settlement agreement.<\/p>\n
With the arbitration panel tackling the Marine Revitalization Corp. settlement ruling in favor of MRC\u2014which resulted in the government having to pay some $6 million instead of $800,000 in initial payment, as provided for in the failed settlement agreement\u2014the question on Capitol Hill right now is who is to blame for this fiasco.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot me,\u201d according to Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes, noting that his sole opposition to the MRC bill would not have been enough for it to flop.<\/p>\n
Reyes noted that during his brief stint as Senate president during the 13th Legislature, the Senate passed the bill but Gov. Juan N. Babauta vetoed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo who\u2019s to blame now? Isn\u2019t it the administration? They try to point finger at me as being at fault here, but I just voted based on my principle. I don\u2019t agree with the bailout,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Legislature\u2019s failure,\u201d observes House minority leader Arnold I. Palacios, citing that the Legislature had the chance to act on the bill for a long time. <\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente, he said, never lacked in reminding the Legislature to act on the proposed settlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Benavente] came to the Legislature early this year, making a presentation on the subject. But in the past eight months, nothing materialized. Lately, he again wrote the Legislature, warning that the government was facing a huge liability,\u201d Palacios said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis liability is a reality now. The government is penalized and it means that the taxpayers would be paying for it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The settlement agreement, contained in House Bill 14-270, reintroduced by Palacios last month, needed to pass the Legislature before Nov. 30, 2004, the date set for resumption of the arbitration. <\/p>\n
The bill passed the House on Nov. 23 on a majority vote.<\/p>\n
It passed the Senate on Dec. 3, the day that the arbitration handed down its decision to penalize the government $5.7 million for breach of contract involving the MRC\u2019s Outer Cove Marina development project. <\/p>\n
The arbitration panel decision is up for submission to the Superior Court for its final entry of judgment.<\/p>\n
Meantime, Palacios said the Senate legal counsel\u2019s interpretation of the MRC settlement as a void document was wrong.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said it was understood between parties that the Legislature\u2019s passage of the bill would be honored, although it was past the four-month deadline.<\/p>\n
Senate legal counsel Michael Ernest earlier opined that House Bill 14-270, which the Legislature had deliberated on at length, was actually null and void since the legislative approval did not take place within four months after the agreement was signed\u2014as agreed upon. The agreement was executed between MRC and the Attorney General\u2019s Office on Feb. 11, 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the case. I myself clarified it with MRC before I introduced the bill and I was assured that, should the Legislature pass it, it would be accepted,\u201d said Palacios.<\/p>\n
The bill had sought to approve the 2003 settlement agreement between the government and MRC and Anthony Pellegrino, and to allocate $800,000 as initial payment to MRC. <\/p>\n
The agreement also included the payment of additional $2.2 million in deferred monthly installment over 20 years through operating revenues of Outer Cove Marina or tax credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The blame game has begun over the failure of the Marine Revitalization Corp. settlement agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86300","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\/86300","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=86300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}