Ceremonious practice in futility

The Senate has filed the Saipan casino bill meaning it is essentially killed. I sat in both public hearings on the bill held on Saipan and listened to oral testimonies.

It was not surprising that 90 percent of those who testified were in favor of passing the Saipan Casino bill. The 10 percent that opposed the bill still cling to the old and obsolete excuse that casino brings in prostitution, drug trafficking, and murder. But even this group nor the panel of senators disputed the testimony of one individual when he asked the senators and those at the hearing this question, “if casino brings in prostitution, drugs, and homicide to the community why is Tinian still supporting and fighting to keep casino operations in their island?

It must be good for the community of Tinian since its people and its leaders want casino operation to stay on Tinian, am I right? The panel of senators consisted of six of which five are from Tinian and Rota. I knew from those hearings that the Saipan casino bill was not going anywhere because of the six senators, three were from Tinian which also chaired the committee, two from Rota, and one from Saipan.

The hearings were more of a ceremonious practice in futility because I knew the Rota and Tinian senators heard the support of the bill (90 percent in support) but chose not to listen. Supporters of the casino bill made more sense to me than the 10 percent opposition although I am neither in support nor against casino as I came to the hearings to learn more and to listen to the pros and cons of the industry.

Why the bill supporters were more convincing? They presented facts that Saipan is the breadwinner of the CNMI and has the capacity to generate the potential revenues needed by the CNMI government from casino operation.

I read part of the bill that even offered percentages of revenues to be earmarked for Rota and Tinian. Now, that makes sense to me since Rota and Tinian don’t have anything to offer Saipan and never did give anything to Saipan for that matter. Tinian keeps over 89 percent of the Tinian Dynasty casino money and gives crumbs to the general fund and gets it right back and more through Tinian appropriation by the Legislature.

Even with all these goodies from Saipan, Tinian still cannot get its finances straight. They are in deficit status year after year then blame each other on inaccurate casino revenue projections versus actual receipt, etc.

The bottom line here is that Tinian has a welfare and selfish mindset that Uncle Saipan will always provide no matter that Tinian does not give Saipan anything. The Rota casino initiative crashed before it took off because of uncontrolled ambitions of its casino commissioners who corrupted the lone casino operation.

But of great importance here also is the fact that the senators from Rota wanted to support Juan Pan and Joaquin Torres (CHC chairman) for video lottery (which passed the Senate). Senators Ray Yumul and Ralph V. Torres are bedfellows of the Rota and Tinian anti-Saipan casino. They certainly were not looking after Saipan’s interest and the CNMI collectively. They are cherry-pickers to enhance their political ambitions.