Article 12 ruling draws diverse views

Tuesday’s landmark court decision paving the way for qualified voters that are not of Northern Marianas descent to vote on initiatives related to Article 12, the land alienation provision of the NMI Constitution, has been drawing different views. Article 12 has always been a hot-button issue in the CNMI.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos said the decision is consistent with his view when he recently vetoed a second political status commission bill partly because one of its provisions restricts commission membership to NMDs. This, he said, constitutes invidious discrimination in violation of the equal protection clauses of the United States and Commonwealth Constitutions.

“I haven’t seen the [written] judgment, the order, but on that point, I certainly agree that we can’t isolate or can’t let the non-NMDs participate in decisions like that, especially on voting,” the governor said in an interview yesterday.

Rep. George Camacho (R-Saipan) said “the issue here is not who may or may not vote on land matters.”

“My question is, what does this mean now to our CNMI Constitution? Obviously, the U.S. Constitution is the highest law of the land. So do we need to amend our own Constitution now, the same Constitution that we all took oaths to protect and defend?” Camacho asked.

House vice speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan) believes that U.S. District Court for NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona “has made it very clear that the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution supersedes Article 18 Section 5(c) of the CNMI Constitution.”

“This is her opinion,” he said.

Other NMDs said the ruling does not matter if lawmakers won’t even pass Article 12 legislative initiatives to be placed on the ballot so that voters—NMDs or not—can vote on them.

Democratic Party’s Jess Taisague said he has not seen the ruling itself but maintained that the Democratic Party has already made a position related to Article 12.

Taisague was referring to the Democratic Party’s statement that “people who are of Northern Marianas descent will face yet another attempt by a few…to tamper with our culturally and constitutionally protected Article 12.”

The Democratic Party said it is vehemently opposed to any attempt, by anyone, to change, amend or remove the mandatory restrictions in Article 12.

Meanwhile, the Citizens for Change of Article 12 is currently circulating a petition to place an Article 12 initiative on the ballot this November. They are leading a popular initiative that proposes a constitutional amendment to remove the mandatory restriction on land alienation and allow landowners to elect to restrict the alienation of their own land.

CCART 12 said that signing the petition does not mean voting yes or no on Article 12, but simply allows it to be put on the ballot for all voters to decide on in November.