FORMER Governors Benigno R. Fitial and Juan N. Babauta, and Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao said they are grateful to the Marianas Public Land Trust for providing loans to critical government agencies.
In separate interviews, Fitial and Babauta said they join MPLT in its objection to Senate Legislative Initiative 22-5, which proposes to give the governor and the Legislature oversight and appropriation powers over MPLT.
It was during Fitial s administration when the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. received a $3.5 million loan from MPLT to acquire power supply from Aggreko.
Fitial said there were âpower outages after power outagesâ in the CNMI at the time, necessitating the acquisition of power from Aggreko.
UNSUPPORTED by facts and history.
This is how the Marianas Public Land Trust described Senate Legislative Initiative 22-5, which proposes to give the governor and the Legislature oversight and appropriation powers over MPLT.
Authored by Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua, S.L.I. 22-5 would ârequire MPLT and its board of trustees to exercise transparency and accountability as a Commonwealth government entity, to provide for reasonable expenses of administration by law, and to require the annual operating budget of the trust to be approved and appropriated by the Legislature.â
S.L.I. 22-5 states that âthe governor and the Legislature must have oversight powers over MPLT in order to ensure that the trustees actions are made consistent with their fiduciary duties and in the best interest of the Commonwealth and the people.â
Governor: Don't abolish Article 12 | News mvariety.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mvariety.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Among them were 20-year-old Trini Iguel and 28-year-old Keoni Hosono.
âFrom my understanding, Article 12 was put in place to protect our people, but according to [SLI 22-1], the initial reasons supporting the establishment of Article 12 are no longer consistent with the needs of the Commonwealth and its people,â said Iguel.
âWill there ever be a time when our people will not need protection? No. Our people have suffered through 500 years of colonialism. This has decimated much of our language, our culture, and our heritage. At this point, the only true connection that we have to our identity as Chamorros and Carolinians is the land.â
Senators hear pros and cons of amending Article XII mvariety.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mvariety.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.