Previous Story
Rota lawmaker asks CDA, others for deferment on loan payments
|
Posted on Sep 18 2018
As recovery efforts on Rota continue in the wake of Typhoon Mangkhut, a Rota lawmaker is urging the Commonwealth Development Authority and other private and public loaning entities to defer loan payments for CNMI residents in the next few months.
Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota), in a Sep. 14, 2018, letter to CDA board chair Frank Lee San Nicolas Borja, asked the agency to extend a “humanitarian gesture” to loan-payers in the form of a 90-day loan payment deferment program.
“Countless families on the island of Rota have suffered significant damage to their homes and agricultural crops and will require additional time and assistance to start rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of Typhoon Mangkhut,” wrote Santos. “Current circumstances have crippled the financial capability of most families on Rota to purchase basic necessities as well as pay loans, mortgages, and other debts they may owe.”
She further noted the higher standard of living on Rota compared to the other NMI islands.
She said the loan payment deferment would help ensure that the “welfare and livelihood” of Rota residents along with Saipan and Tinian residents are not “further compromised.”
“I seek your continued assistance to expeditiously offer a 90-day loan payment deferment program to Rota and the entire CNMI loan customers that have suffered from the wrath of typhoon Mangkhut,” she said.
The CDA chairman has yet to respond.
Santos told Saipan Tribune that she issued similar letters to Marianas Public Land Trust board chair Pedro R. Deleon Guerrero and City Trust Bank manager Maria Lourdes Johnson to temporarily ease loan payments for NMI residents.
