Former Marianas District Legislature President Vicente N. Santos, who attended the administration’s Covenant Day celebration at the Garapan Fishing Base yesterday, said Article 12 is an important provision for the local people.
That is why people of NMI descent, Carolinians and Chamorros, continue to defend its retention, he added.
Santos said “no outsiders” but only people of NMI descent as defined by the CNMI Constitution should decide whether to repeal or retain Article 12.
“Even if you are born on Saipan, if you are an alien you cannot vote in that referendum,” said Santos, who was vice chairman of the NMI’s political status commission that negotiated the Covenant with the U.S.
Santos said he strongly opposes the repeal of Article 12, which restricts land ownership to people of NMI descent only.
“Give us the chance to maintain and hold on to our land,” Santos said.
He doesn’t believe that repealing Article 12 will help the CNMI economy.
“Look at our islands. They are small islands. Would you like outsiders to buy these lands?” he asked.
Santos said he has lands leased to “outsiders” and he is confident that those properties will revert to his ownership.
“If I sold those lands many years ago, there will be no more left for my family,” he added.
Department of Public Lands Secretary Oscar M. Babauta, and former Workforce Investment Agency Executive Director Felix R. Nogis said Article 12 may not be the same once a referendum is held on it.
The local people do not like to repeal it, but they may amend its Section 4 which defines who is an NMI descent, Nogis said.
But Babauta said the issue of who should qualify to vote must be settled first.
He believes that people of NMI descent “will come together and assert what they believe is right.”
The Covenant, the U.S. public law that made the islands part of America, allows the CNMI to reconsider the issue of land alienation in 2011.
