Chalan Laulau road closure looms if…

After waiting for more 17 years to be paid, the landowner of the road leading to the B&R Auto Repair Shop at the corner of Beach Road in Chalan Laulau finally ran out of patience last Tuesday and briefly closed the road to traffic.

After talking with the Department of Public Lands and the Office of the Attorney General last Tuesday, Cecilia Teregeyo Lisua said she is giving the government until the end of this week to gather the funds to pay the land compensation that her family is owed.

If no payments toward the land compensation is made by Monday, said she will pour gravel on the road, completely blocking it off until payments are made.

She said they’ve been working on the land compensation with DPL for 14 years now. The family is expecting over $100,000 in land compensation for the property.

Lisua said that after speaking with a DPL case worker last Tuesday, she was told that they only need a map of the property to process the land compensation claim.

Lisua said that she blocked the road because her family had not been compensated and she has been working on the land compensation with DPL since 2004 up to 2018 when she was hospitalized.

She said her family has given the government years to pay the family but to date, there has been no action and she is tired.

Spotted last Tuesday at the site were some police officers and House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) who said he was only there to check as the area is part of Precinct 3 that he represents.

When later asked about the matter, Villagomez said he responded to the area after it was brought to his attention and talked to the family to get a little background as to why they blocked the road going to B&R Auto Shop.

He said he believes it has something to do with land compensation as the family appears to have been waiting for a long time to get compensated.

The speaker said there are some documentation issues that they need to follow up on and a family member is handling the matter.

He said the police were there to just kind of pacify the situation to at least allow one lane to open for people to go in and out.

“I mean, it wasn’t a bad situation. They already removed everything before I left,” Villagomez said.

He said DPL representatives later arrived at the scene to talk to the family.