Pew’s proposal comprises the Northern Islands of Maug, Uracas and Asuncion.
In a letter addressed to House members, Rep. Stanley T. Torres, R-Saipan, said, “These ‘polls’ require that you have a computer, find the poll on a pro-Pew Web site and have no controls like legitimate polls do.”
He said to promote the results of the polls as an indicator of public support is not scientific.
Some Pew supporters would want to make it appear that there is general consensus about the proposal, he added.
“Some of our most respected leaders and elders reject the proposition outright,” Torres stated, adding that “many other citizens” want to learn the details of the Pew proposal before making a final decision.
Torres noted that most people who attend and support public forums organized by Pew are not of Northern Mariana descent.
“They are not stakeholders, they don’t own land here. It’s not their ‘public land’ that would be given away should this [marine monument] be enforced by [President] Bush,” Torres said.
But Angelo Villagomez, Pew’s Saipan coordinator, countered Torres claim, said their group has neither commissioned nor conducted an official online or actual poll on the marine monument proposal.
He added that Torres’ argument on the socio-cultural background of the people supporting Pew’s proposal is not true.
“I think he’s dividing the public,” Villagomez told the Variety, adding that their public forums have won the support of Labor Deputy Director Cinta Kaipat, David Sablan, Ignacio Cabrera, and some legislators.
During the presentation of Professor Tom Iverson’s economic report on the Pew proposal, the members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Marianas Visitors Authority, and the Saipan Rotary Club were very receptive, Villagomez said.
The Fitial administration and both houses of the Legislature are opposed to the monument proposal “at this time.”
