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Manglona decries changes to Village Homestead Act
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Posted on Feb 21 2001
Rota would be hard pressed to comply with amendments to the Village Homestead Act if an initiative to change some of its provisions is passed. This was the assessment of the island’s highest local official, Mayor Benjamin T. Manglona.
House Bill 12-186 seeks to mandate the orderly emplacement of basic infrastructure in new and old subdivisions and lots and to give those homesteaders experiencing hardship opportunities to improve their shelters.
Among the amendments being entertained is that there should be in place, paved roads, street lights, sidewalks, and storm drainage before a homestead tract can be made available.
Secondly, there should exist water, power, sewer and telephone utilities before an applicant can ever be considered for the grant.
Under the proposed set up, the authority in charge of erecting such infrastructure is the Office of Public Lands. Mr. Manglona, however, doubts whether the body has enough resources, especially funds, to undertake such a mammoth task.
He remarked, “Of course this would be good (the infrastructure requirement) and we wish the Public Lands would do it. But is it reasonable to put this requirement on Public Lands? Where will they get the resources to make these needed improvements? Must our people wait on them to act?”
Mr. Manglona also questioned whether it was practical to postpone distribution of homestead tracts to people until the said requirements have been fulfilled.
“The requirement might be more hardship than help for our people,” he lamented.
However, Mr. Manglona pointed out that a silver lining on the proposed measure is Section 2(b) which calls for more flexibility in the building of improvements due to financial hardship.
HB 12-188 was introduced by Rep. David M. Apatang and is now being studied by the House Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.
