Babauta objects to PTI’s submission—again—on Verizon deal

Putting up a needle’s eye for the proposed Verizon purchase to get through, Gov. Juan N. Babauta again opposed a document submission to the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission by Pacific Telecoms Inc., the company that intends to acquire local operations of the telecom facility from Micronesian Telecommunications Corp.

Babauta’s lawyer, assistant attorney general James Livingstone, and CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell jointly filed their objections to PTI’s prospective board members list, saying that it was substantively and procedurally deficient.

Livingstone and Caldwell said the list contains no local independent board member, which they believe should be required by the CTC.

“The CTC, as well as the people of the CNMI, should have a local board member, independent of the company [PTI], to rely on to address their concerns or problems. Right now, there is no one,” they said.

“[The] CTC should require that at least one local, independent board member be included in any approved board. Because there is not one proposed now, the current list should be rejected or be expanded to include an independent local member,” they added.

The government lawyers also noted that the list was filed two months late from the May 15 deadline agreed to by PTI and MTC with them. They also said the filing was made by Jovino G. Lorenzo and not Jose Ricardo P.R. Delgado as agreed upon.

Livingstone and Caldwell also pinpointed the deficiency in the resume of one of the prospective board member, Robert Anderson, saying that the document was the same one submitted to the CTC last April 2003.

“Both Jose Ricardo P.R. Delgado and [MTC general manager] Tony Mosley have indicated that Mr. Anderson now resides in Florida. Not the Philippines, and that he does not work for Citadel Holdings as a consultant any longer. The old resume PTI submitted indicates otherwise,” they said.

PTI’s Delgado and MTC’s Mosley could not be reached for comment yesterday. Delgado had earlier accused the governor of bias against him, saying that the Babauta administration’s stance against the telecom deal paints a negative picture of the CNMI to potential foreign investors.

Last week, Babauta formed an interagency task force—the First Responder Task Force—as he vowed to break Verizon’s monopoly in the CNMI’s telecom industry.

In forming the task force, Babauta said diversifying the industry is indispensable to ensure the CNMI’s economic development and security.

Babauta disclosed that the task force would seek grants from the U.S. Homeland Security Department to help diversify the CNMI’s telecommunications.

Several government agencies compose the task force, including the Emergency Management Office, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the AGO, the departments of Public Safety and Public Health, and the offices of the mayors of Saipan, Tinian and Aguigan, Rota, and the Northern Islands.

Before the creation of the task force, CTC executive director Adam Turner said the commission could approve the sale even if the monopoly issue has not been addressed. He added, however, that the CTC would still look into the monopoly issue, even if PTI gets a license to operate the telecommunications facility.

The CTC is awaiting the findings of an audit to ascertain PTI’s financial capability, the only remaining issue that has yet to be resolved, besides the monopoly issue, following the settlement agreement reached by MTC and PTI with the governor and Caldwell.