Senate Resolution 17-69 also amends the Senate rules barring senators from entertaining land leases without the advisory board’s review and recommendation.
With Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo, Ind.-Saipan absent, all the eight senators present voted to approve the resolution.
Introduced by Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu, Ind.-Rota, the resolution enforces Public Law 15-2 which established the Department of Public Land and required the creation of public land advisory board that should comprise of five members to be appointed by the governor and mayors of Rota, Tinian, Saipan and Northern Islands.
The advisory board’s responsibilities include recommending approval of leases involving more than five hectares of public lands, approving a comprehensive public land use plan and consulting with the DPL secretary on homestead programs.
Since the enactment of P.L. 15-2 in 2006, Ayuyu said “DPL has been operating under the sole discretion of the secretary without the benefit of a public lands advisory board.”
The DPL secretary, he said, has recommended approval of public land leases, worked on a public land use plan and developed homestead programs without any recommendation for consultation from the advisory board as mandated by law.
In amending the Senate rules on public land leases, the resolution requires a “notice of opportunity” to lease public lands prior to the expiration or after the termination of an existing public land lease, provided that this rule “shall not apply to public land leases necessary for developing or enhancing the infrastructure of the CNMI including water, power and telecommunication.”
In an interview yesterday, DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta said P.L. 15-2’s provision to create the advisory board was subsequently repealed by the 15th Legislature.
Babauta said the senators did not realize there was a subsequent repeal of the provision.
“The resolution was prematurely drafted,” he added.
