Frica resigns as farmer’s co-op president

Former senator Maria Frica Pangelinan resigned as president and manager of the CNMI Farmers Cooperative Association effective last week.

In a letter dated Oct. 28, 2015, Pangelinan informed board members and co-op members that she would be leaving the position that she has held as a volunteer for a year.

“It is with sadness that I leave my position as a volunteer, because there is still so much potential and opportunity over the long-term to reconstitute the agricultural sector with the co-op as an important contributor to making economic progress,” Pangelinan wrote.

In an interview with Saipan Tribune, Pangelinan said she would continue to assist the co-op in any way she could.

Her resignation comes a day after the Department of Lands and Natural Resources wrote Pangelinan for the co-op to “cease and desist” using the Garapan market.

Pangelinan said it is sad that the co-op is being evicted from the Garapan building.

“The market operated under the government money and under the government building. It’s just so sad that they are evicting us when the whole goal of the designation of the land is for that purpose,” she said.

In his letter to the co-op, DLNR Secretary Richard Seman said the co-op cannot resume operations at the market until an agreement is in place. However, Pangelinan said they weren’t given copies of the agreement.

“It would have been easier if he had provided us the agreement instead of the eviction notice,” Pangelinan said.

“It doesn’t make sense that they would give us the eviction and not the copy [of the agreement] and they said we need you now to sign the copy. They’re basically saying shut your eyes and just sign what we gave you,” she added.

Pangelinan said the last conversation she had regarding the agreement was back in June or July of last year when now Sen. Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan) was still DLNR secretary.

“Where is the agreement? The last agreement that was given to me, that was proposed to me, was when Sen. Arnold Palacios gave it to me. It required a $1 million liability insurance and I voiced out my concern to Arnold,” Palacios said.

Pangelinan said she was concerned about the liability insurance back then because the market was still struggling and it was something that was “too stringent for the market to even consider at that time.”

“It just actually needs for everyone to sit together and work out an arrangement to see whether the conditions and provisions that were supposedly on the agreement that we need to sign will be workable for the market to continue to operate or not,” Pangelinan said.

DLNR also notified the co-op that the Marianas Meat Harvesting Group, which operates beside the farmer’s market, must stop their use of the market and that they will be determining whether local meat can also be sold at the market as it was originally intended for the sale of local produce and locally-caught fish. Pangelinan said meat is actually “more on the agricultural side.”

“I looked at the land designation purpose and goal from Department of Public Lands. The meat is more on the agricultural side than the fish,” Pangelinan said.

“There is actually no agreement signed, so obviously you can conclude that nothing is authorized and nothing is unauthorized,” she added.

The co-op will hold a general membership meeting tomorrow afternoon at the Carolinian Utt to elect new board members, which will in turn elect new officials for the organization.