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MPLT board kills Plumeria project agenda
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Posted on Jan 04 2006
Majority members of the Marianas Public Lands Trust board moved yesterday to officially take out from its agenda the issue on the Plumeria Estate funding.
“We took it off. Never to be discussed again, unless somebody in the public wants us to tackle it in the future,” said MPLT acting board chair Herman R. Guerrero yesterday.
The board held a special meeting yesterday morning to discuss the issue following a recent move by Rota trustee Vianey Hocog.
Hocog, who was absent during the initial voting on the issue, reportedly asked the board to allow him to participate in the decision-making during the trustees’ meeting on Rota late last month.
However, Hocog was absent again in yesterday’s meeting, which was held on Saipan.
Present in yesterday’s meeting were Guerrero, Edith Deleon Guerrero, and board chair Juan S. Torres via telephone.
Tinian trustee Joseph San Nicolas was absent due to a family concern.
In a previous meeting, a vote on whether the MPLT will grant Plumeria’s $5.8 million funding request resulted in a tie. Guerrero and Torres favored the funding while Deleon Guerrero and San Nicolas voted in the negative.
Guerrero said yesterday that the trustees’ latest decision to remove the topic from the agenda also factored in the role of the incoming Fitial-Villagomez administration.
“We want to give the new administration the chance to look at it, to give a shot at it,” said Guerrero.
Plumeria Estate is a project introduced by the Babauta administration to help solve the housing shortage in the CNMI. It never took off due to a lack of funding.
The Babauta administration, through the Housing Task Force, earlier requested the MPLT for a $5.8 million infrastructure funding for Plumeria.
It had identified 702 capital improvement funds for fiscal years 2007 and 2008 as possible sources of money to pay off MPLT.
The Fitial administration, however, may tap this funding for its own pet projects.
The Plumeria project involves the construction of new houses for first-time homeowners on approximately 13 hectares of land in Koblerville.
The requested funding of $5.8 million would be used for the utility and roadways infrastructure.
