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Lawmaker questions whereabouts of human remains
Rep. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan) wants to shed light on the whereabouts of the reported 332 human remains and artifacts uncovered on the construction grounds of the Saipan casino in Garapan during archaeological work last year.
Sablan asked House Speaker Rafael Demapan (R- Saipan) to allow the appropriate House committee to seek an audience with the Historic Preservation Office on this matter.
“There has been no light shed on their whereabouts,” said Sablan. “I feel our people deserve to know… We are not sure how long this is going take.”
Do we want the remains “in a container or have them in a resting place?” he added.
Sablan said he been told that the remains where kept somewhere around Lower Base, and kept in a container, which he reminded should be air-conditioned and provided 24-hour security.
“Hopefully, we can expedite the final report and recovery,” Sablan said. “Our people deserve to know” and our “ancestors deserve to rest.”
For his part, House Vice Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) noted the other issue of previous unfinished data recovery on the same site by a Japanese developer in the late ’90s—where an osteologist took a reported 263 human remains for study off-island.
“They’ve been gone a long time,” Deleon Guerrero said, adding that their “status” needs to be followed up on.
