Torres administration stresses MV Luta benefits

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has no comment yet on the taxpayer’s lawsuit brought against his right-hand man, Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog, over the adoption of a resolution Hocog authored while he was Senate president last year that purportedly passed without public notice and discussion and authorized the payment of $400,000 to a private company owned by Hocog’s relatives.

However, the Torres administration yesterday stressed the food and goods relief that the MV Luta, the 150-foot cargo ship for which the $400,000 was used to subsidize, could bring to the people of Rota.

The administration was pressed for comment late Tuesday, when news of the taxpayer’s lawsuit by former Department of Public Lands secretary John DelRosario first broke.

Among other things, the administration was asked if Torres stood by Hocog as he faced allegations for violations of the Open Government Act, Ethics Act, among others; reasons for the administration’s transfer $400,000 from the CNMI General Fund Account to Luta Mermaid, LLC’s bank account in March 2015, despite the author of the resolution, Hocog, being relatives with owners of the company; and if the CNMI government has been repaid the public funds disbursed by Finance in 2015. The resolution called for a repayment of the $400,000 “within a period of one year.”

“Governor Torres has not yet spoken to the attorney general about the lawsuit or actually seen the complaint filed in Superior Court with respect to the MV Luta. The governor cannot therefore provide any specific comments at this time about the judicial suit,” said governor spokesman Ivan Blanco said in an email yesterday.

“The governor does, however, want everyone—and especially the people of Rota who have for so many years suffered and endured incredibly high food costs and prices for basic household commodities because of unpredictable shipping services to that island—that he will continue to work for a solution to that problem and hopes that the MV Luta can play some role in bringing relief to the people throughout the CNMI,” Blanco said.

DelRosario also filed the lawsuit against Department of Finance Secretary Larissa Larson for causing this $400,000 to be transferred from the general fund account to the company Luta Mermaid LLC.

The $400,000 was reportedly from funds from the Saipan exclusive license fees reserved to Rota through the casino law.