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‘MPLA-PTI dispute will be settled out of court’
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Posted on Feb 24 2006
The former Marianas Public Lands Authority’s dispute with the Pacific Telecom Inc. over underground cables will be settled out of court, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said yesterday.
The governor himself is negotiating with PTI to come up with a settlement agreement on the abolished MPLA’s demand that the telecommunications company pay easement fees for cable lines buried in public lands.
“We don’t have to go to court to settle that. It’s too simple. What they [PTI] offer is actually too much and we’re ready to accept too much because we need money,” said interim Public Lands Secretary John Del Rosario.
Fitial echoed Del Rosario’s statement, saying: “We do not support that lawsuit. We support an amicable resolution. That [lawsuit] was another case of wasteful spending because [the dispute] could be resolved and it will be resolved.”
The Micronesian Telecommunications Corp, which PTI acquired last year, laid underground cable lines on public lands in the CNMI in the 1980s.
The lines were buried to ensure continued communications and the people’s safety during typhoons and other calamities.
But the former MPLA, which is now Department of Public Lands, maintained that PTI must pay easement fees for the use of the public lands for the cables.
Negotiations between the two parties reached a deadlock, causing MPLA to file a lawsuit against PTI.
The Senate last month adopted a resolution urging the then MPLA to enter in a memorandum of agreement with PTI providing that the telecom firm award CNMI indigenous students with full educational scholarships in lieu of paying rental fees to MPLA.
Authored by Senate President Joseph Mendiola, S.R. 15-05 maintained that such an arrangement would “conceivably end the impasse in negotiations between MPLA and PTI and provide an amicable solution to the present dispute.”
