As it is Article 12 does not provide land owners unilateral right to decide on their own what to do with their land. The future generations of the CNMI people will eventually lose their land because Article 12 states that you cannot own land in the CNMI unless you have at least 25 percent (1/4) Northern Marianas descent, NMD. A person may qualify as NMD;
1. If that person were born or domiciled in the Northern Mariana Islands by 1950;
2. And was a citizen of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands before the termination of the Trusteeship with respect to the Commonwealth. The Trusteeship ended on November 3, 1986.
You may not own land in the CNMI if you do not qualify under the two conditions stated above. You are also not qualified to own land if you left the Northern Marianas before 1950 and established residence say, in Island Nations in Micronesia, Guam, Japan, Korea, Philippines or United States.
Since 1950 and thereafter many NMD’s have gone off-island for various reasons. One of the more popular reasons is to further their education to become doctors, nurses, teachers, economist etc. Some of our college graduates eventually married to someone they met while attending college in U.S. or abroad. The following scenarios are examples that might fit your situation:
• The CNMI person who is 100 percent NMD marries a 0 percent NMD.
• Their children will then be 50 percent NMD.
• If one of the children with 50 percent NMD marries someone who is 0 percent NMD, their children will reduce their bloodline down to 25 percent NMD.
• If the following generations reduce their bloodline to less than 25 percent NMD, they will no longer be able to own land in the CNMI.
The illustrations above determine who can own land, fee simple in the CNMI. Any further dilution of bloodline, below 25 percent will disqualify that person to legally own land in the CNMI. There are many people here in the CNMI who are no longer qualified to own land, fee simple, legally. A cursory survey of the impact of land ownership pursuant to provisions of Article 12 indicates that many locals might not qualify to own land now.
We must each ask if we are qualified to hold fee simple title of land in the CNMI. It is strongly recommended that you check if your children, their children and their children’s children will still be qualified to own land pursuant to provisions of Article 12.
The repealing of Article 12 will still guarantee you ownership of your private land. If you don’t want to sell your land, so be it. If you want to sell your land that is a decision that you and you alone can make. If you want to give away your land, again that is your decision to make. You can do all of the above even after Article 12 is repealed. You do not have to worry about your future generations not being able to determine what to do with the land you behind for them.
Many “not-so-well-informed” folks are saying that they want to keep Article 12 as is. Or extend the life of Article 12 to either 75 years or 99 years. By then the majority of the people of the CNMI will alienate themselves to their land because the vast majority of people living in these islands will probably have less than 25 percent NMD bloodline. This is sure to happen because the CNMI will be a “melting pot” with different nationalities intermarrying with Chamorros and Carolinians. The only way that I would concede to keep Article 12 is for this government to enact a law to prohibit intermarriage between NMD and non-NMD.
In reading Sections 4 of Article 12 of our Constitution, I learned that a person does not have to be born in the Northern Mariana Islands to qualify as NMD. A person of Northern Marians descent is a person who is a citizen or national of the United States who is at least ¼ Northern Marianas Chamorro or Carolinian or a combination thereof. A child who is not NMD if adopted by Chamorro or Carolinian NMD is qualified as NMD even if that child was not born in NMI.
I strongly urge everyone in the CNMI to support an Initiative to allow the voters to express their views whether or not to repeal Article 12 in the next General or Special Election.
DAVID M. SABLAN
Papago, Saipan
