{"id":9130,"date":"2011-12-20T04:34:20","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T04:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=9130"},"modified":"2011-12-20T04:34:20","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T04:34:20","slug":"suwaso-cop-in-good-standing-with-15-year-permit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/suwaso-cop-in-good-standing-with-15-year-permit\/","title":{"rendered":"Suwaso: COP in good standing with 15-year permit"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ferdie de la Torre
\nReporter<\/div>\n

Coral Ocean Point Hotel and Golf Course is in good standing with its 15-year permit, according to attorney Vincent Torres who is chairman of COP owner, Suwaso Corp.<\/p>\n

In his response yesterday to Saipan Tribune’s inquiries, Torres described as false the news article (not in the Saipan Tribune) that the Department of Public Lands’ 120-day deadline given to Suwaso to submit its financial status was up last Dec. 11.<\/p>\n

Torres clarified that the deadline is 240 days, but that this deadline is not an issue anymore because they already submitted all the requirements to DPL.<\/p>\n

With respect to the report that Philip Mendiola-Long had recently resigned as board secretary of Suwaso Corp., the chairman said the resignation has no impact on COP’s hotel and golf course business.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that they have absolutely no problem with their investors in China pertaining to COP’s shares.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not any issue at all,\u201d said the lawyer.<\/p>\n

As to the recent resignation of COP’s longtime comptroller Matti David, Torres said Matti resigned because she is relocating to the U.S. mainland to reunite with her two daughters.<\/p>\n

Torres said Yusuke Fumoto, his partner in the COP, is here on Saipan for 10 days and came to participate in COP staff’s Christmas party held last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOP’s business is very much alive and more and more customers are coming in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The new Suwaso owners had promised to settle the previous owners’ debts to the CNMI government of almost $1 million, and with other CNMI private and public agencies using an immediate infusion of $7 million.<\/p>\n

A group led by Cheong Pui Ng, a former business partner of the late business tycoon Larry Hillblom, has reiterated its intent to invest over $11 million in COP.<\/p>\n

Pacific Investment and Development Corp. president Ng previously offered to invest over $10 million in the hotel but is now promising an additional $1 million to rehabilitate COP.<\/p>\n

Last Dec. 12, Ng resubmitted to DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta of its proposal for a 25-year lease with option to lease up to 40 years for the management and operation of COP.<\/p>\n

Ng is president of Bang Plee Construction Limited that built Hillblom’s Dalat Hotel and Golf Course in Vietnam in 1994. He owns several businesses on the island.<\/p>\n

Ng said they have heard that the extension given by DPL to the current lessee of COP has already lapsed without them complying with the terms and conditions of the extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this circumstance, our party would like to inform you that we are still interested in leasing out the property,\u201d Ng said in the letter.<\/p>\n

COP is located on a 735,023 square meter property at Agingan Point, Saipan. Under the law, any lease and extension of lease of public land consisting of more than five hectares requires legislative approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ferdie de la Torre Reporter Coral Ocean Point Hotel and Golf Course is in…<\/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-9130","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\/9130","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=9130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}