Sablan: Citizens living in substandard conditions

Gov. Benigno Fitial has failed to provide a solid plan to overcome the current power crisis, therefore citizens of the CNMI must take action, Rep. Tina Sablan said yesterday.

“It falls on the people of the CNMI to call on the federal government because we are living in substandard conditions,” she said.

At a press conference yesterday, Sablan and local businessman Ed Propst shared their plans for a Sept. 17 rally to ask President Bush to declare the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. under a federal state of disaster, and to petition to place CUC under a federal court-appointed receivership.

“We need, through this petition, to tell the government of the United States we have a health problem,” Sablan said.

Sablan and Propst are calling on everyone affected by the power crisis to voice their opinion at the rally, which will take place at 5 pm at the Garapan Fishing Base.

“You don’t have to be American to come,” Propst said of the peaceful rally. “Anyone can come. Anyone who can write can sign the petition.”

Propst and Sablan are seeking intervention through the Stafford Act, a law that allows for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to request federal intervention during times of a major disaster.

The governor of the affected state must make the request stating that the magnitude of the disaster is beyond the capabilities of the local and state government.

“It’s still possible for the President to make a change,” Sablan said.

CUC does not just need to be bailed out by the federal government, but it needs federal oversight, as well, she said, “to get some assistance and guidance to address the root of the rampant and systematic problems at CUC.”

A receivership will insulate CUC from destructive local politics, Sablan said.

Charles Reyes, press secretary for the Governor’s Office, said the CNMI is not able to benefit from the Stafford Act.

“Our Finance Department secured an opinion from FEMA regarding the applicability of the federal act cited by local dissident groups,” Reyes said in an e-mail. “FEMA states that the CNMI would only be able to benefit from the act if we had a major natural disaster, such as an earthquake, or if we encountered a major man-made disaster, such as a terrorist attack. Previous neglect, mismanagement, or corruption apparently do not qualify as a man-made disaster under the language of the federal law.”

According to the Stafford Act, an emergency is constituted as “any occasion or instance for which, in the determination of the President, Federal assistance is needed to supplement State and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in any part of the United States.”

A spokesman from FEMA in the United States could not be reached yesterday.