The Marianas Public Lands Authority opposed yesterday the attorney general\u2019s request to extend the 10-day injunction blocking the release of $3.45 million in land compensation to the Malite Estate.<\/p>\n
Mark Smith, attorney for the MPLA board of directors, told the court that the motion filed by the Attorney General\u2019s Office failed to show sufficient reason why the temporary restraining order must be extended.<\/p>\n
Smith added that the motion is \u201clittered with inaccuracies\u201d and therefore should be denied.<\/p>\n
The AGO filed the motion last Monday, urging the Superior Court to extend the TRO, which is scheduled to expire on Dec. 23. The AGO maintained that the remaining days of December 2004 and beginning of January 2005 are holidays and time to be spent with the family.<\/p>\n
However, Smith said the AGO\u2019s suggestion that the holiday season warrants an extension does not justify the AGO\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The AGO] could easily request that this matter be heard before the court on or before Dec. 23, 2004. In addition, there are work days in between Christmas and New Year\u2019s [Day] which will provide all parties an opportunity to appear at an evidentiary hearing for plaintiff\u2019s preliminary injunction,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
He also maintained that the AGO cannot subvert any avenue for relief available for the defendants, now that the AGO has obtained a TRO.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear [from] the Attorney General\u2019s conduct that it was insensitive to the plight of [the] Malites for decades and remains insensitive. The Malites\u2019 land was taken from them; they have been plagued with legal problems surrounding their land; they have waited patiently and waited too long for this case to be resolved,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Further, the MPLA board\u2019s attorney pointed out inaccuracies in the AGO\u2019s motion.<\/p>\n
He said that, contrary to the AGO\u2019s claim, MPLA board member Benita Manglona did not vote to approve the land compensation awarded to the Malite Estate.<\/p>\n
The AGO had accused Manglona of conflict of interest when she allegedly voted in favor of the $3.45-million award. Manglona is the sister of the Malite family attorney, Pedro Atalig.<\/p>\n
\u201cBenita Manglona sat in on the discussions on the Malite matter and despite legal counsel\u2019s opinion that she could vote on the matter, [she] decided to abstain from voting on the Malite matter,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Supporting Smith\u2019s contention was a declaration by Manglona and a copy of the minutes of the MPLA board\u2019s Aug. 13 meeting, when the board approved the Malites\u2019 land compensation.<\/p>\n
Smith also noted that Edward Deleon Guerrero is the MPLA commissioner, not the financial comptroller as the AGO had stated.<\/p>\n
Further, he said the Malite family has never received money for their land, contrary to the AGO\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attorney general does not know the facts and should not be granted any further extension on the injunction already granted,\u201d Smith said. \u201c<\/p>\n
The AGO filed a lawsuit against MPLA, the Commonwealth Development Authority, and the Malite estate administrator on Dec. 3, asking the court to stop the $3.45-million land compensation payment to the heirs of Angel Malite.<\/p>\n
Malite owned the 6,900-sq.m. Marianas High School property before it was taken by the then Trust Territory government in 1968.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 9, Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama issued the temporary restraining order. The TRO indicated that it would be effective for 10 days, \u201cunless within that time it is extended for good cause shown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marianas Public Lands Authority opposed yesterday the attorney general\u2019s request to extend the 10-day injunction blocking the release of $3.45 million in land compensation to the Malite Estate.<\/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-86414","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\/86414","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=86414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}