Certified question still awaiting House consent

With Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) essentially begging off, the Inos administration is now looking for any member of the House of Representatives to sign off on a certified question to the Supreme Court concerning Saipan Local Law 18-19.

“We’re having just a little bit of a problem trying to get the folks who previously agreed to sign off on the certified question. We’re trying to get at least one member [of the Legislature] to sign off so we can get it going,” Gov. Eloy Inos said in an interview with Saipan Tribune Friday.

SLL 18-19 appropriates $800,000 in Managaha landing fees to pay landowners whose properties were taken by the government for public use.
The Department of Public Lands, through the Attorney Generals Office, is questioning the constitutionality of the local law, arguing that the fees are proceeds from the island’s land lease and therefore should be remitted to the Marianas Public Land Trust. It said the Legislature has no authority to earmark the funds.

The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation, which passed the local law, believes the landing fees are not part of the land lease and are in fact entrance fees that tourists pay when they visit Managaha Island.

“The question really is whether the landing fee is part of the land lease. They [delegation] said they have authority over it. A similar situation was vetoed in the past,” said the governor.

Like what House Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) and Rep. Anthony Benavente (Ind-Saipan) earlier told Saipan Tribune, Inos said he wants the certified question forwarded to the Supreme Court at the soonest possible time so the whole issue of land compensation will finally be settled.

“We need to have a finality on this thing so let’s just send it up for the certified question. I’m going to contact the speaker and see if he’s willing to sign off on this. We need finality on this thing. If we can get somebody to sign off on it today so we can send it to the Supreme Court, the better, and I hope the Supreme Court will expedite [its decision].”

How the Supreme Court acts on the certified question on SLL 18-19 will have bearing on a proposed bill Benavente is offering, this time tapping $2 million from the Managaha landing fees to pay other land claimants.

Under the $800,000 land compensation payment local law, at least 223 Saipan landowners will get anywhere from 89 cents to over $190,000, based on DPL data.

Besides those owed land compensation payments on Saipan, other intended beneficiaries of SLL 18-19 are the NMI Museum of History and Culture and the Northern Marianas Descent Corp., which are supposed to get $100,000 each by mid-October.