Yumul asks DPL to hold off notices to boat operators

Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan) asked the Department of Public Lands yesterday to “stay” or hold off a notice telling boat operators to stop picking up tourists on Mañagaha for water sports unless they are Tasi Tours or have an agreement with Tasi Tours, until clarifications on DPL’s authority and its agreement with the Managaha concessionaire are made.

Yumul, at the same time, warned that DPL’s memo or notice “may spark lawsuits against DPL.”

He said DPL’s notice can also have a “negative repercussion” to tourism “by confusing visiting tourists whom we desperately need.”

Yumul cited as an example DPL’s double collection of $5 landing fee from a water sports operator for a short period last year. That water sports operator had to collect the amount from the same tourists.

DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta said yesterday that the double collection was stopped shortly.

Babauta said he has not received Yumul’s letter yet, so he could not comment on its content.

He added, though, that even his predecessors were issuing notices to concessionaires and DPL permit holders as reminders for them to comply with laws, regulations, and policies.

Some of the 20 affected boat operators also hope that DPL would reconsider its notice for them to stop picking up tourists on Mañagaha.

Mañagaha, a world renowned snorkeling site, is visited by over 60 percent of all tourists who come to the CNMI annually.

Yumul told Babauta that his office and that of the Legislative Bureau counsels are “actively reviewing” the constitutionality and legality of the DPL memo, as well as the concessionaire agreement between the former Marianas Public Lands Authority, now DPL, and the concessionaire and the amendments to such agreement.

Yumul said this review is “an attempt to understand your legal position in this matter.”

Based on preliminary review, Yumul said it would seem DPL has no authority to regulate and control activities on the ocean surface as the CNMI does not control submerged lands.

The lawmaker also said a plain reading of the administrative code 145-30-101, published on May 15, 2003, states that “the exclusive right to operate all commercial concessions does not include the exclusive right to provide transportation to and from the island.”

“I take this to mean that water sports operators may freely transport tourist to and from the island without limitation on each business day,” Yumul said.

He also cited Public Law 15-2, which states that DPL’s authority does not extend to the issuance of land use permits and licenses. He said the regulation and control of water sport business activities should be left to other appropriate CNMI agencies such as Department of Commerce, Coastal Resources Management, and Division of Fish and Wildlife.

The DPL secretary said only the concessionaire-currently Tasi Tours-“can conduct tours on Mañagaha Island or from Mañagaha Island.”

“When tourists are picked up on Mañagaha Island to go on a marine sport tour, whether it’s parasailing, banana boating or the like, they are taking a tour ‘from the island.’ If the tour is sold by a company other than the concessionaire, the concessionaire’s exclusive right to operate all commercial concessions on Mañagaha Island has been violated. It should be noted that this is regardless of whether the tourist is returned to Mañagaha or taken back to Saipan after the water sports tour,” Babauta said in his notice to beach concessionaries and marine sports operators.