I encourage others lawmakers not to pass this bill.
I have two reasons why your bill should not become law:
No. 1 — Low-income people under medication may need to refill their medicine but they have no money and the only solution is to pawn their TV set. If this person needs to wait for two days I believe he is going to end up in the hospital’s E.R.
No. 2 — In an emergency situation, people will need money right away and cannot wait for two days. A good example is payless payday. You end up destroying lives. You are also interfering in a private business matter. If you can do this to one private business then perhaps you can also introduce a bill requiring banks to lower their interest rates because the people are suffering.
My opinion, sir, is to mandate pawnshop owners to require customers to present valid photo I.D.’s that are government issued. Second, pawnshop owners should provide the police with a copy of all items pawned on a daily basis so when an item is reported stolen, the investigator can look into those items and see if any of them match the description of stolen items.
Let the police do their job. That’s why they have investigators.
But I respect the opinion of Municipal Council Chairman Ray B. Camacho who is in favor of House Bill 17-82. Maybe Mr. Camacho can also talk about the two concerns I just mentioned.
Congressman Guerrero and Chairman Camacho, please do not put the people of the CNMI in a hardship situation.
RAY AGULTO
Kannat Tabla, Saipan
