Commonwealth Casino Commission Chair Edward C. Deleon Guererro, second right, speaks as Commissioner Thomas A. Manglona, left, Commissioner Mario Taitano, second left, and Vice Chair Ralph S. Demapan listen during a meeting on Friday in the CCC conference room at Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai.
WITH mounting debts since its office in Gualo Rai shut down in Jan. 2023, three years after its only source of funds, Imperial Pacific International, ceased operations at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Commonwealth Casino Commission is in desperate need of money, its chair, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, said on Friday.
Before it shut down its office, the commission had to let go of over 50 employees due to its failure to collect the annual $3.15 million regulatory fee from IPI since 2020.
During the CCC’s monthly meeting on Friday, Deleon Guerrero provided an update on where they stand now, financially.
He also noted that the assistant attorney general representing the CCC “is in no urgency in helping the Commonwealth resolve [IPI’s] bankruptcy proceedings expeditiously.”
“Keep that in mind,” he told his fellow commissioners.
Over the year, the Office of Attorney General has assigned different assistant attorneys general to represent the CCC. The assistant AG currently representing the commission is Lucy Blanco-Maratita.
When told that Blanco-Maratita was off-island, Commissioner Thomas A. Manglona said, “It seems to me that everybody is abandoning us.”
Required by law
Deleon Guerrero said the “CCC desperately needs money as our financial obligations are mounting. We owe all commissioners compensation, as required by law.”
He said “as soon as we get the money, we need to hire staff and start the training, and we owe office rental significantly, and our equipment needs to be maintained, including our office equipment, our vehicle that is parked outside. Also, we owe the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and IT&E,” he added.
CCC’s office has shut down, but the commissioners still use its conference room for their monthly meetings, during which they turn on one air-conditioning unit. Sometimes, they could also operate the copy machine, but last Friday, it malfunctioned.
Deleon Guerrero thanked Taitano for helping him print copies of the agenda and other official documents.
“Our financial situation is seriously in dire need of attention from our government officials,” Deleon Guerrero said.
The commission’s newest member, Manglona said he was “deeply concerned” about the mounting debts the CCC has been incurring. He noted that the CCC has not been paying office rent for two years. He wants to know if the commissioners will be held personally liable if the CCC does not secure funds to pay the rent.
Deleon Guerrero said “the CNMI government should be responsible.”
He said IPI, for its part, still owed the Commonwealth a total of $77.5 million in annual exclusive casino license fees that the casino investor has failed to pay since 2020. The annual license fee of $15.5 million had grown to $62.5 million as of April 2024, when IPI filed for bankruptcy.
Deleon Guerrero said that of the $77.5 million that IPI owes the CNMI government, $62.5 million is subject to bankruptcy proceedings.
But he said the $15.5 million license fee that was due on Aug. 12, 2024, is a post-petition, outstanding debt that, “in my opinion, is a different matter and not covered by bankruptcy court.”
In addition, he said IPI has failed to pay the CCC the $3.15 million annual regulatory fee since 2020 and now owes a total of $20.7 million.
