‘Central gov’t still owes MPLT over $10M’

Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero

As of Thursday last week, more than $10 million remains due and outstanding from the central government on the original $15 million that the government borrowed from the Marianas Public Land Trust to pay vendors for recovery efforts from Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018.

This was learned from Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan), who disclosed that the MPLT note is being paid down from the very funds that get transferred by MPLT to the central government.

At that rate “it’ll take more than five years for the outstanding note to be fully paid, which means five plus years of no direct benefit to the rightful owners,” she said.

The Senate president discussed the MPLT loan in response to Saipan Tribune’s request for comments about her Legislative Initiative 23-1 that seeks to amend the NMI Constitution to ensure that transferred accrued interest on the investment proceeds of MPLT is reserved for the benefit of the Northern Marianas descent population.

Deleon Guerrero said the initiative is very important for NMDs who are the rightful owners of the MPLT Trust funds, which originated and continues to be from the revenues of public land leases owned collectively by NMDs.

She noted that there have been similar initiatives introduced in prior legislatures, but not one was passed.

To date, the income after expenses of MPLT continues to go directly to the general fund and co-mingled with other CNMI revenues, she said.

The trust corpus continues to be fully vested in the market; however, the question we must ask ourselves is when will the rightful owners of the trust funds here being the NMDs begin to directly benefit from the trust income and is MPLT’s creation intended to be the central government’s bank account and/or savior when government cash flow is running dry/short?” the senator said.

She said the initiative’s intention is to create equity for NMD families through the creation of another investment portfolio under strict management where the growth of the capital can be invested in tangible social programs.

DeLeon Guerrero cited as an example housing, where a family can have immediate acquisition of asset that gives them net worth value, lifting them out of poverty and providing them a sense of hope for a better life.

The president believes that this initiative is worthy for consideration for the intended beneficiaries.