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Minority lawmakers say proposed land trustees should be elected
A proposed legislation abolishing the Department of Public Lands and replacing it with a corporate entity with a board of trustees will work if the members of the trustees are elected.
This is the opinion shared by Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) and Rep. Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan), who are both members of the House minority bloc.
The lawmakers believe that having a board of trustees that is appointed may not work as effectively as a board of trustees which has elected members.
According to them, there might not be that big of a change if appointed members will sit on the board of trustees.
Yumul said he will support the proposed bill if the board of trustees are to be elected. He said he has net yet seen the bill and will reserve further comments until after he reads it.
The bill was pre-filed by Rep. Felicidad Ogomuro (R-Saipan), a member of the majority bloc.
According to Ogumoro’s bill, the members of the board of trustees will be appointed. “Like in the previous instances, the Governor has the authority to appoint the members,” Ogumoro said.
She said there was no mention of having an “elected” board on the proposed board of trustees.
Last Friday, Ogumoro said she pre-filed a bill seeking to abolish the DPL and establishing in its place the Marianas Lands Corp. with a board of trustees.
Ogumoro said the board of trustees “will manage and control the public lands in the Commonwealth, which collectively belong to persons of Northern Marianas descent, pursuant to Section 1 of Article XI of the Northern Mariana Islands Constitution.”
Ogumoro said “since its inception, DPL has been operating and making independent decisions directly related to the management and disposition of public lands—such as public land leases and village homestead development—without the presence, input, advice of, or voting by the Public Lands Advisory Board as required by Public Law 15-2.”
