Popular initiative on Saipan casino now being planned

After the rejection by the Senate or the Executive Branch of at least two bills seeking to legalize casino gaming on Saipan and a third bill that remains dead in the water at the Senate, a group of individuals is now turning to popular initiative to have the question of casino gaming be placed in the Nov. 6 ballot.

Former Senate president Juan Demapan said yesterday that while it is too early to begin the actual signature drive, developing the idea and planning for it should now begin because of the considerable amount of time, effort, money, and other resources needed to ensure it’s placed on the ballot.

“It’s another option but it has to be planned carefully. We need sufficient public information about it, we need financial support for it because it takes a lot of resources,” Demapan told Saipan Tribune.

Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan), author of the House casino bill that the Senate shot down in 2010, said yesterday it’s about time that a popular initiative be considered because the Senate appears to be sitting on the House casino bill authored by Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan) and Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan).

Tenorio, a former governor and speaker, believes it would not be hard to gather enough signatures to put the question of Saipan casino on the ballot. The hard part, he said, would be to ensure that it gets enough votes on Nov. 6.

At least 20 percent of persons qualified to vote on Saipan need to sign the petition drive. It then has to be approved by two-thirds of Saipan voters who cast their votes.

The last Saipan casino popular initiative was rejected by Saipan voters in 2007.

Tenorio, at the same time, urged the House leadership not to act on bills and initiatives from the Senate until senators act on the House casino bill.

He said the Senate initiatives to help the Retirement Fund will lead to the demise of the Marianas Public Land Trust and the Department of Public Lands.

He said the Senate thinks that by passing these initiatives and bills to help the Fund, they don’t need to act on the casino bill, which he said will also help the Fund.

“I will campaign against these Senate initiatives and bills,” he added.

Senate Vice President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), chairman of the Senate panel reviewing the House casino bill, said yesterday that since the beginning, the Senate’s position has been to allow Saipan voters to decide whether or not to allow casino operations on Saipan.

Hofschneider said he welcomes the idea of a popular initiative.

As to the House casino bill assigned to his Senate Committee on Federal Relations and Independent Agencies, he said the committee has yet to thoroughly discuss the measure.

Former House speaker Pedro Deleon Guerrero, president of the CNMI Indigenous Entrepreneurship Inc. that led the Saipan casino initiative in 2007, said yesterday that the major reason why the initiative was defeated in 2007 was the small window of opportunity to educate the public about the casino proposal.

Had the Office of the Attorney General certified the signatures immediately at the time, there would have been considerable time for an educational campaign on the initiative, he said.

Deleon Guerrero said his support for another casino initiative will depend on the way the initiative is written and its specific goals, among other things. Moreover, he said he supports only a casino industry that is “regulated” and is located in established hotels or in newly built hotel casinos.

Deleon Guerrero said he has hopes that the Senate will act on the House casino bill now before them.

He also said that the reasons why his group pushed for the casino initiative in 2007 will generally remain the same.

“We were pushing for the casino initiative then because we didn’t want a government shutdown. We didn’t want work hour cuts, delayed salaries and unemployment. All of those things happened,” he said, adding that had the casino initiative been approved in 2007, the CNMI would have had an industry that could have replaced the garment industry.

Tourism is now the only industry in the CNMI since the pullout of all garment factories that once manufactured global brands such as Levi’s, Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and Guess.