‘NMDs are already losing their land because of Article 12’

A member of the non-profit group Citizens for Change of Article 12 emphasized yesterday that persons of Northern Marianas descent are already losing their lands, dismissing the prevalent misconception that NMDs will lose their lands only when the CNMI’s land alienation provision in the Constitution is repealed.

“And they’re [NMD’s] losing it for pennies,” said Vincent J. Seman, a guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Saipan membership meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.

CCART12 is composed of “concerned individuals” actively pushing for the repeal of Article 12, which they claim hinders economic growth.

Seman said that Article 12 was supposed to protect NMDs from outside investors that want to take advantage of their lands. Presently, though, it could not protect these NMDs from other NMDs.

Another CCART12 member, Alex Sablan, underlined that there is a small pool of NMD buyers in the Commonwealth “and they are setting the pace and scale” for properties on the islands, giving birth to an “artificial ceiling” of land values.

“Because we have such a small pool, land values hit rock-bottom prices,” said Sablan, who recounted stories of NMD families facing financial constraints and are forced to sell their properties for lower than their actual market value-a practice that has become common due to Article 12.

Seman noted that Article 12 also brings about foreclosures in the CNMI since it restricts a person’s ability to refinance a loan given that commercial banks are “scared” to deal with the land alienation clause.

“Under the Article 12 provision, what it means is that banks have a very limited narrow scope of being able to own fee simple for a very short time,” he said.

“I believe and we believe that my generation and the future generations are going to be completely disenfranchised by virtue of the fact that there isn’t accessible credit on this island for good lending or for good opportunity to do business,” added Sablan.

He also pointed out that the issue of blood quantum “dilution” is a serious one that needs to be changed. Right now, among those considered NMDs are individuals who have 25 percent Chamorro or Carolinian blood.

According to Sablan, NMDs who choose to marry “somebody outside the culture” or a non-NMD “shouldn’t have to be relegated to have their children lose property because they lose their blood quantum.

Seman said there is “inequity” in the definition of NMDs, which he described as political. For example, an individual with 25-percent NMD married to a non-NMD will bear children who will only be 12.5-percent NMD. On the other hand, if an NMD adopts a child who is not from the Commonwealth, the child is considered full-blooded NMD by virtue of Article 12.

Seman stressed that voters will have the chance to put on the ballot this November the decision whether to repeal or retain Article 12. Section 805 of the Covenant allows the CNMI to revisit its land alienation restrictions 25 years after the termination of the Trusteeship Agreement in 1986. That 25-year period ended in 2011.

CCART12 is currently conducting a petition to put the initiative “To propose a constitutional amendment for the people of the Northern Mariana Islands to vote to repeal Article 12” on the Nov. ballot.

“What we really emphasize is everyone should be allowed to make their own decisions based on the facts. With that, we hope that we do get support just to put it in the ballot for whatever reason, whether to keep it or if it’s time for a change,” said Seman.