Righting misconceptions about Azmar and Pagan

First, I would like to say that I am a friend of Mr. Don Farrell, and that I am an acquaintance of Dr. Thomas Arkle. With Tinian being such a small place, it would have been almost impossible for me to not meet them during the 15 years that I have lived here. Furthermore, I have not been asked by either of them to write this letter, and I am not in the pay of Azmar (I sort of wish I were, as I could use the extra money during this time of year.). I am writing this letter in an effort to be fair, and to correct some misconceptions that I read in Mr. Peter J. Pangelinan Perez’s letter.

As for my qualifications, I received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in Conservation of Natural Resources. I hold a master degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg. I co-authored the first edition of “Island Ecology” with Mr. John Fury, who has greatly expanded this book into the current edition he is now editing. I have taught the Natural History of the Mariana Islands and Natural Resources Management courses at the Tinian extension of NMC. I do understand what natural resources are available here in the Mariana Islands and the importance of their conservation.

First, Mr. Perez is correct that public lands are held in trust for all the people of CNMI descent. The original Constitution of the CNMI established the Marianas Public Land Corporation (MPLC) to manage the CNMI public lands. The members of the board of the Marianas Public Land Authority (the successor of the MPLC) are of CNMI descent, and manage public lands for all the people of CNMI descent. Mr. Perez seems to imply that all the people of CNMI descent should vote on every issue that involves public lands. The Constitution does not agree with Mr. Perez, and his implied view would stop all development on public lands in the CNMI. A vote of all the people of CNMI descent would be needed for all development projects involving public land. This would be a very slow and expensive process. That is why we have representatives to make the day-to-day decisions of government for us.

Now down to Azmar’s development proposal for Pagan. Mr. Perez states that it “was extremely one-sided and amounted to gross exploitation.” Most business deals are usually one-sided. The investors must make a profit, but at the same time, they are taking all of the risk. The CNMI government and people were not the ones taking the risk in this mining proposal; they would have only benefited from it. Does the CNMI government have the millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars needed to develop Pagan and ship the pozzolan to its buyers? In this time of economic hardships, I don’t believe the government would be able to find the money necessary to develop the resources on Pagan without help. Also, it must be remembered that the economy will not be improving in the near future, especially when the textile tariffs are removed and the textile factors close in the CNMI.

As for the list of documents that the MPLA wanted from Azmar, one of them was a list of its buyers. If this list were turned over, what would stop others from negotiating with Azmar’s buyers and undercutting its deal? Don’t tell me that MPLA could keep the names of the buyers secret. Nothing in government remains a secret for long, especially on these small islands we live. In addition, has MPLA ever asked any other developers who their buyers or customers would be? By the way, did MPLA ask J.G. Sablan Construction & Quarry Company who its buyers were when this company was issued a mining permit for Pagan? As for the required list of documents, I don’t think the whole truth about this has come out yet, concerning what documents were or were not required.

Next, Mr. Perez says that Azmar was only going on hearsay about the pozzolan deposits on Pagan. It is my understanding that they were using two reports from noted institutions of learning and science. This doesn’t sound like hearsay to me. Would someone be willing to invest millions of dollars on hearsay? I think Mr. Moore is a lot smarter than that.

One of the criticisms expressed about Mr. Moore has been that he has never run a mining company. I have to honestly say that I do not know Mr. Moore, or his background, but I have been led to understand that he does know international financing and how to create successful companies. Most CEOs and directors of large companies don’t know all the details of what their companies are doing. Would you expect the CEO of General Motors to know how to make the thousands of products that it manufactures? They rely on experts for the details, as I feel, Mr. Moore would have in his pozzolan mining venture.

Mr. Perez and PaganWatch keep saying that Pagan is a beautiful pristine island. Have any of them visited Pagan? I was there in 1993 for four days. Yes, about half of Pagan is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. The other part of the island I found to be a lava and ash field, with little growing on it besides some stunted grass and tangantangan in sheltered areas. In the open areas, there was nothing because the ash kept burying it. Yes, the volcano was still having minor eruptions when I was there. The area proposed for mining is not the beautiful pristine part of Pagan that is always being described by Mr. Perez and other members of PaganWatch.

Yes, Mr. Perez is right. There is a problem with how MPLA issues permits. They need to set clear guidelines and procedures. They need to have better communications among the board members and with their staff. Once the problems with how the MPLA board makes decisions is fixed, a fair and unbiased process can be followed by all that want to use public lands to enrich the people of CNMI descent.

Should Azmar have gotten the mining permit? I really don’t know since I have not seen any of the information that they have submitted, or been privy to any of the discussions about Azmar’s permit. I just know that the CNMI has a valuable resource that should be developed in a responsible matter.

Howard Cole
Marpo Valley
Tinian, MP