Senator: Loss of Rota air service should be declared emergency

A senator believes that an emergency should have been declared back when a long-running air service provider pulled out of Rota, crippling its residents and trapping them on the island.

Sen. Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) in last Thursday’s Senate session believes that when Cape Air Express was forced to pull out from Rota after United Airlines severed ties with them in Micronesia, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres should have declared a state of emergency for the island.

“The present air service situation [on Rota] since the pull out of Cape Air should [have been considered] an emergency situation,” he told Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan) as they discussed a communication from the governor’s office announcing the nomination of Barry Toves to serve at the Commonwealth Ports Authority board of directors representing Rota for a third term. Toves is also the chairman for CPA board airport facilities committee.

Manglona also urged the Legislative Affairs Office of the governor to expedite the procurement of requirements for Toves’ nomination since in a recent meeting between the Rota Legislative Delegation and CPA, the latter is currently crippled since they fail to establish a quorum due to the lack of board members. Sen. Steve Mesngon (R-Rota) chairs the Rota delegation.

He added that after discussing with the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations chair Sen. Francisco Cruz (R-Tinian), Toves still lacks several requirements for his reappointment, such as the drug test and other documents.

Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota) said the nomination of Toves would be his third term in the CPA board if confirmed.

‘CPA continues to wait’
Manglona noted that during the meeting between the Rota delegation and CPA, the latter said they were still awaiting a response from United’s Chicago headquarters to set up a meeting with Torres, Guam Gov. Eddie B. Calvo, and the respective ports authorities for the CNMI and Guam to discuss air services.

“We need to create a task force immediately to address [the lack of air services]. If we don’t do that, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel any time soon,” reiterating his earlier statement of the need to declare the lack of air services as an emergency.

Manglona requested to Palacios to create a “joint taskforce with the House” to sit down with CPA and “move forward.”

An internal communication from United Airlines informed their employees that Cape Air would be pulled out of servicing the CNMI through their Saipan-Guam, Rota-Guam, and Rota-Saipan routes effective on May 31, 2018.

Since then, no airline has been providing daily reliable flights to and from Rota.