“As a matter of principle and public policy, the administration favors incurring the least cost and gaining the greatest investment returns with reasonable risk,” he told Variety in an e-mail.
Reyes noted that MPLT is an autonomous agency and does not fall under the executive branch, and the question of whether or MPLT prudently uses its fund ”is not an issue for the administration to resolve.”
Two indigenous groups have questioned the propriety of using MPLTs fund to buy private land when there is public land available for office space.
Former Speaker Oscar C. Rasa, CNMI Descents for Self-Government and Indigenous Rights spokesman and adviser, said “money of indigenous people” should be used for purpose that benefit people of NMI descent.
Taotao Tano’s Gregorio Cruz also questioned the land purchase, claiming that there is a conflict of interest because MPLT’s legal counsel is directly related to the landowner.
But according to Redie Aldan, MPLT office manager, there is no conflict of interest because Robert T. Torres, MPLT’s legal counsel who is related to landowners Vicente and Martina Camacho, “recused himself from being party to all negotiations” between the agency and the lot owners.
“I strongly urge the association to prevent from misrepresenting this matter in the media or in any other public forum before obtaining factual information from MPLT first,” Aldan told Cruz in an e-mail.
