HANMI opposes bill reducing protection for tourists

The 12-member Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands is opposing a bill seeking to repeal a law that intends to give more protection to tourists.

HANMI board of directors chair Nick Nishikawa and four other board members said that, rather than repealing Public Law 14-50, which prohibits aggressive solicitation, “the law should be amended to provide more protection of our tourists.”

The hotel group also calls for enforcement of laws that protect visitors.

House Bill 17-142, introduced by Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), seeks to repeal PL 14-50 in its entirety. The bill says aggressive solicitation involving shouting loudly and physically touching or grabbing persons is adequately covered by other criminal laws relating to disturbing the peace and assault.

It also says PL 14-50 or 6 CMC 3113 “only discourages business and should be repealed.”

But HANMI is taking the opposite view.

“The harassment of tourists by vendors has been a years-long problem for the Northern Marianas, and HB 17-142 proposes to repeal the law that was intended to give more protection to our visitors,” HANMI officials said in a letter to Demapan.

PL 14-50 prohibits persons from loitering on public thoroughfares to lure, entice, or solicit persons for commercial gain.

But HB 17-142 says the loitering law does not extend to private malls and shopping cenrers, giving merchants in those private malls and shopping centers “an unfair competitive advantage.”

“If enacted, however, this bill will only force our visitors to fend for themselves on public property as well,” HANMI officials said.

HB 17-142 cites two other criminal laws that supposedly cover such aggressive solicitation, including disturbing the peace and assault.

HANMI said there’s no distinction whether such acts are committed on public or private property.

Moreover, in practice, it is harder to prosecute a violation of “disturbing the peace” as it generally requires a complaint by the victim to prove that such contact that disturbed the victim’s peace was non-consensual.

HANMI said disturbing the peace and assault have been criminalized since 1983 through PL 3-71.

“Due to lack of enforcement of these other statutes, aggressive solicitors were allowed to flourish and harass our tourists to such extremes as to generate negative publicity for the Northern Marianas. This ultimately prompted the enactment of 6 CMC 3113 in an effort to curb such acts and repair the CNMI’s image with our visitors,” HANMI said.

The group said HB 17-142 still acknowledges the existence of the victimization of tourists.

“Inexplicably, HB 17-142 essentially aims to protect the rights of aggressive solicitors over the rights of our tourists by finding that 6 CMC 3113 ‘only discourages business,’” HANMI said.

Besides Nishikawa, the other HANMI board officials who signed the three-page letter to Demapan were vice chair Byung Kyu Park, secretary Hiroki Sugie, treasurer Michael S. Johnson, and member Ivan Quichocho.