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House OKs bill to reserve Tinian land for agri homesteads, commercial uses
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Posted on Aug 27 2008
The House passed a Senate bill yesterday that proposes to reserve a total of 524 hectares of public land on Tinian for agricultural homesteads and commercial uses.
With a 13-2 House’s votes, Senate Bill 16-37 will go to the governor for approval. Only Reps. Christina Sablan and Edward Salas opposed the passage of the bill.
Sens. Joseph M. Mendiola, Luis P. Crisostimo, and Felix T. Mendiola introduced the bill.
The legislation seeks to reserve 140 hectares of the Chalan Famalao’an for commercial and other purposes—as determined and approved jointly by the Mayor of Tinian and Aguiguan, the Tinian Municipal Council, and the Tinian Legislative Delegation. The remaining 40 hectares of the area will be reserved for agricultural or residential homestead lots.
The bill also proposes to designate as a reserved area the Pina area containing 384 hectares, for agricultural homestead lots.
The authors of the legislation state that many Tinian residents have been waiting for a long time for agricultural homestead lots as there have not been adequate parcels of land to meet such need.
The senators said there is a need to reserve certain areas for commercial use due to the limited amount of public lands available on Tinian and the need to have resources available for future economic investment opportunities.
In opposing the bill, Rep. Sablan said the legislation should be referred to the natural resources committee for further study.
“We must do our due diligence to make sure we are managing public lands properly,” Sablan argued.
She said there is a need to first determine whether there is an environmental issue in that land or whether there is a conflict of zoning law and other possible issues.
Majority of the lawmakers, however, agreed to respect the leaders of Tinian who “know best what their people need for their island.”
Rep. Oscar Babauta first opposed the legislation, saying he does not see the rationale for it. In the absence of data, he said he is not convinced the bill is necessary.
After other lawmakers explained their support for the legislation, Babauta said he would give the Tinian leadership the benefit of the doubt and that he “rests his case.”
