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‘Igisomar looking into concern on Catholic churches’ lands’
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Posted on Jul 15 2021
Sen. Victor B. Hocog (R-Rota) has disclosed that the Senate Executive Appointments & Government Investigations Committee is now working with acting Department of Public Lands secretary Sixto Igisomar about Sen. Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero’s (D-Saipan) concern as to whether the CNMI government still has rights to the lands where Catholic churches in the Commonwealth are built.
After listening to DeLeon Guerrero’s statements about the churches’ lands during the Senate session last week, Hocog said DeLeon Guerrero’s concern has merit and that they are talking with Igisomar to come up with a documentation as to whether or not the Catholic Church owns the lands or not.
The senator said he understands Igisomar will work on the concern and will report that to the Senate once his appointment as DPL secretary is confirmed.
“That is one that I also inquire of him, to seriously look into those areas as we really don’t know the present status of those public lands,” Hocog said.
DeLeon Guerrero underscored the need for the CNMI government to work possibly with the Office of the Attorney General to check whether the government still has rights to those lands.
DeLeon Guerrero said lawmakers should be concerned because if these public lands are being held as liens to settle a huge case right now against the Catholic Church in Guam, it will affect the people of the CNMI.
Hocog said he is not quite sure who actually owns the land where the Catholic church on Rota is located and those areas that are being used by the public and the church for some activities.
Hocog said they’d like to also ensure that if they provide infrastructure funding for some development projects, then they should know the boundary of their authority and whether they can make improvement or not on some affected lands.
“The acting secretary of DPL is seriously looking into those kind of issues,” he said.
