The CNMI Attorney General’s Office wanted to remove the lawsuit filed by the Friends of Marpi from the local trial court to the federal court.
The CNMI court on April 15 issued a 10-day temporary restraining order that prevented the erection of more power poles in Marpi and scheduled a hearing for today, April 29.
But Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood, in her four-page order on the emergency motion filed by the Friends of Marpi, said the CNMI government seems to have timed the removal of the case “so as to cause the TRO to lapse without any possibility of its conversion to a preliminary injunction.
This would empower [the CNMI government] to moot the entire case…. And this may not prove bad faith, but it does suggest it.”
Former Rep. Tina Sablan, one of the Friends of Marpi, said the district court’s order “means there may still be a Superior Court hearing tomorrow morning, Friday, April 29, on the preliminary injunction requested by Friends of Marpi on the power pole project. As of this writing, we are still awaiting confirmation from Superior Court.”
“The court agreed that as this matter involved the CNMI Constitution and laws, it should be heard in the CNMI courts but also the [CNMI] government tried to take advantage of a procedural loophole to allow the TRO to lapse so they could continue the project. Now that won’t happen, we hope,” attorney David Banes, one of the founding members of the Friends of Marpi, said in an e-mail to the Variety.
Sablan at the same time lauded the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands for “adding a powerful voice of support in the quest to preserve the natural beauty and integrity of the Marpi area.”
HANMI yesterday submitted a letter to the governor, the attorney general, and the CNMI Legislature urging the reevaluation of the Marpi power pole project, a consideration of alternative energy sources, and public hearings “in order to define the desire of the public, the government, and the private sector in the development of Marpi.”
In addition to HANMI, other tourism and business organizations, including the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation, have similarly called on the CNMI government to reconsider the power pole project, implement alternatives, and hold public hearings.
