Speaker: CNMI needs to take position on Pagan now

House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) said yesterday that the CNMI needs to take a stand now on the U.S. military’s planned use of Pagan for live-fire training and other activities, even as he announced his intention of introducing a resolution opposing the “militarization” of Pagan in the Northern Islands.

Deleon Guerrero, one of those at the CNMI Military Integration Management Committee meeting on Capital Hill yesterday, said to date, the CNMI has not taken a position on the military’s Pagan plans.

“We need to decide first whether this is something we’re going to support or not. To me, it seems the CNMI is in the process of supporting it but there’s no official stand on it yet,” he said.

But just the same, Deleon Guerrero said he will be introducing a resolution opposing the military’s use of Pagan mainly because of its environmental impacts on one of the CNMI’s most pristine islands, and would welcome colleagues to co-sponsor it.

He said once the resolution is introduced, he will immediately assign it to a committee that he would encourage to hold public hearings.

Deleon Guerrero said the CNMI government also has not held public hearings on the matter, adding that the public meetings were held mostly by the U.S. military and other private entities in the CNMI.

“The CNMI government needs to get the sentiment of its own people,” he added.

Joint Region Marianas commander Rear Admiral Tilghman Payne, on Nov. 11, said local residents’ concerns about the military’s proposed use of Pagan are being taken into consideration.

The U.S. military plans to use Tinian and Pagan to meet its unit level and combined level training deficiencies in the Western Pacific. This, as Guam training areas are already being used to capacity.

Many in the CNMI oppose the proposed use of Pagan, but not necessarily the use of Tinian, where two-thirds of its lands are already leased to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said the Legislature could also appropriate some $200,000 so that the administration can hire environmental experts to review the military environmental impact statements and other studies related to their plans in the CNMI.

“That’s where the fight is, the EIS,” said Sablan, who was also at the MIMC meeting yesterday.