IN a joint public hearing on Rota last week, the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development, and Programs and the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law, and Federal Relations heard public comments on four legislative initiatives, including one that proposes to amend Article 12 of the CNMI Constitution.
Senate Legislative Initiative 22-1 would remove the restriction on the alienation of land in the CNMI, to allow Northern Marianas Descent, or NMD landowners to fully exercise their real property rights, and to reduce the NMD percentage of ownership interest in a NMD corporation.
The legislative initiative was introduced by Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider in February and was referred to the Senate Resources, Economic Development, and Programs Committee for review.
A legislative initiative is a proposal to amend the CNMI Constitution.
According to the Constitution: “The legislature by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of the members of each house present and voting may propose amendments to this Constitution…. An act of the legislature under this section may not be vetoed by the governor.”
An amendment proposed by legislative initiative “shall become effective if approved by a majority of the votes cast.”
Full support
Rota Mayor Efraim Atalig was the first to share his comments on S.L.I. 22-1, expressing his full support for the legislative initiative.
He said after weighing the pros and cons of the proposal, he believes that NMD landowners should have the freedom to choose what to do with their lands.
“To me, this is not about money. This is about your beliefs [and] your rights,” he said.
Also invited to provide testimony were the three Rota Municipal Council members, but none were present.
For their part, a majority of private citizens who provided testimony expressed their support for the legislative initiative, citing their own personal struggles. They said they are financially incapable to cover their loans to the bank while also unable to maintain or sell their land.
These private citizens asked that the lawmakers allow the people the freedom to decide whether or not to sell their lands to non-NMDs.
Other proposals
The Senate committees also heard public comments on Senate Legislative Initiatives 22-2 to 22-4, all of which were authored by Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua and referred to the Senate Judiciary, Government, Law, and Federal Relations Committee for review.
S.L.I. 22-2 proposes to amend Article 5, Section 4 of the CNMI Constitution to require the islands’ representative to the United States Congress to provide a report to the Legislature in a joint session.
A private citizen expressed his support for this initiative, stressing the importance of the CNMI delegate relaying information to the public about progress being made on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as opposed to the local community hearing about it on U.S. news outlets and social media platforms.
S.L.I. 22-3 proposes to amend Section 10 of Article 3 of the CNMI Constitution to restrict the governor’s emergency powers to mobilize available resources to respond to that emergency within the executive branch, but not including the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and autonomous agencies.
S.L.I. 22-4, for its part, proposes to amend Article 10, Section 2 of the CNMI Constitution to require the governor to provide a report on the social, fiscal, and economic impact of tax exemptions.
There were no public comments on S.L.I. 22-3 and S.L.I. 22-4.
The Senate Judiciary, Government, Law, and Federal Relations Committee is chaired by Sen. Karl King-Nabors and consists of Senate Floor Leader Vinnie Sablan as vice chair, Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua, Sen. Francisco Cruz and Sen. Victor Hocog.
All five of them also serve on the Senate Resources, Economic Development, and Programs Committee, along with Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero.
Senate Vice President Quitugua, who chairs the committee, was excused from the joint public hearing.
Jude Hofschneider
