THE Rota Legislative Delegation on Wednesday last week passed three local appropriations for medical referral assistance and scholarship programs.
All authored by Rep. Donald Manglona, House Local Bills 22-1, 22-2 and 22-6 were unanimously passed by the delegation whose other members are Sens. Paul A. Manglona, Victor Hocog and Teresita Santos.
H.L.B. 22-1 appropriates $40,000 of the Rota Municipal Scholarship Foundation Reserve Account for the Rota Municipal Scholarship Foundation, and $20,000 for student housing assistance.
H.L.B. 22-2 appropriates $60,000 in poker licensing fee collections for the medical subsistence allowance of Rota’s hemodialysis and terminally ill patients.
H.L.B. 22-6 appropriates $21,272 of Rota’s share of the e-Gaming license fee collections for the inter-island medical referral stipend of Rota patients and their escorts.
Under Public Law 18-31, Rota and Tinian are each entitled to 10% of the e-Gaming fees collected annually on Saipan.
In a telephone interview after the delegation session, Senate Manglona said H.L.B. 22-1 will provide scholarship funding to Rota students “who are also struggling financially just like their parents during these difficult times.”
H.L.B. 22-2 and H.L.B. 22-6, he added, will provide “long overdue medical subsistence allowance to our hemodialysis and terminally ill patients and stipend for inter-island medical referral patients and their escorts.”
He said “many of our patients rely on this stipend to obtain medication and medical care on Saipan.”
