So states Gov. Benigno R. Fitial testimony on Thursday at the legislative hearing for H.R. 670 introduced by Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan and co-sponsored by 19 other U.S. House members.
The CNMI governor could not attend the hearing on Capitol Hill; however, he sent a written testimony to the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs.
Fitial believed that granting the CNMI authority over the submerged lands “is now due.”
He said, “The CNMI has been without full title and authority over the submerged lands. Thus, rendering the CNMI without the full authority to regulate and police its submerged lands.”
For Fitial, the bill addresses a matter of “utmost importance” to the commonwealth and “a matter long overdue to be addressed.”
He stated that the CNMI has been a member of the American political family since 1976 and by joining the union, the CNMI should have gained title to the adjacent submerged lands.
He said the commonwealth had passed laws regulating use and exploitation of the natural resources of the submerged lands owing to this understanding of control.
But the governor said question of control had been “controversial” and led to litigation that reached the U.S. Supreme Court where it was settled.
With H.R. 670, Fitial said the CNMI will finally be afforded the sense of equality it has pursued “in an effort to seek equal footing with the coastal states and territories of the United States.”
The other states and territories, he said, have full right, title, and interest in their adjacent submerged lands.
“The CNMI should be afforded the same rights granted to all coastal American states under the submerged lands Act, which includes 27 percent of all federal rents, royalties, and revenues paid annually to the coastal states and full right to three miles of submerged lands,” he said.
He also described as “extremely difficult” for the people of the CNMI to “fully understand why the United States has never granted the CNMI full authority.”
The governor said this type of unequal treatment “is severely unfair” to the CNMI.
He also said the CNMI is not asking for special preference through H.R. 670 but fair and impartial treatment and the CNMI deserves to be granted full right, title, and interest in their submerged lands.
The governor also believes that the measure will help the CNMI to protect and conserve its natural resources.
He pointed out that “maintaining the health and abundance of the reef and sea is critical to the economy of the CNMI.”
He said the CNMI had been actively engaged in the negotiations the scope and terms of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument with the proclamation recognizing that subsequent legislation might grant the CNMI control over submerged lands and that these lands “may remain part of the monument, for coordination of management with the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
The governor requested the subcommittee to direct its attention to the development and enactment of legislation that would provide for revenue sharing for mineral deposits in the submerged lands.
“Anything less reduces the ability of the CNMI government to balance cultural, environmental, and economic factors, and denies the CNMI the right to self-government,” he said.
He also asked the subcommittee to consider the fundamental principle of equality and its rightful applicability to the people of the CNMI, as equal members of the American political family.
The Department of the Interior, according to a copy of its testimony obtained by Variety, also supports the measure but with amendments regarding the date of enactment and the inclusion of the CNMI where other territories were mentioned. Interior also wants the submerged lands be conveyed to the CNMI until such time that the commonwealth enters into a co-management and protection agreement with Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
