Only three members voted against House Joint Resolution 16-13 — Reps. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, Heinz S. Hofschneider, R-Saipan, and Edward T. Salas, R-Saipan.
The Senate is also expected to act on the joint resolution today.
Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan, is its principal sponsor.
House Floor Leader Joseph N. Camacho, R-Saipan, who was among those who voted in favor of the resolution, said the majority of the community members are against the proposal because they fear their access to the islands will be restricted.
“I don’t doubt that there are people who support it,” he said. “But the majority of the people that I talked with, average citizens, the ones that I see at rosaries, novenas and barbeque parties, who don’t always write letters to the editor, those who don’t read the blogs, are not in favor of the proposal,” Camacho told Variety.
Proponents of H.J.R. 16-13 said the CNMI stands to lose access to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone surrounding the waters of Maug, Asuncion and Uracas which could spell the lost of potential economic opportunities for the indigenous people.
On June 15, 2006, President Bush designated Hawaii’s Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
Some people, however, are criticizing the project, saying the indigenous people of Hawaii are not given access to the site, the joint resolution stated.
Early this year, the Legislature adopted Senate Joint Resolution 16-4 asserting that the CNMI marine monument proposal is a permanent and irrevocable federal action that would need the opinion of the people given its potential economic impact to their livelihood.
H.J.R. 16-13, in contrast, is an outright rejection of the proposal.
“The designation of the CNMI marine monument will limit access to these islands to researchers, tourists, or whoever else as determined by a federal agency, which will serve to exclude a majority of the people of the CNMI and their descendants from access to this area in perpetuity,” according to H.J.R. 16-13 which will be transmitted to Bush, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V. and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. and chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, among other local and federal officials.
“The people of the CNMI have a strong affinity with these islands and its surrounding waters, and have a deep sense of its connection to the culture, traditions and the unique identity of their people,” the joint resolution stated.
The lawmakers said the CNMI Constitution already guarantees the protection of the three islands as wildlife conservation areas.
“A unilateral designation of this area as a marine monument under the Antiquities Act without the consent of the people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands would be an…insult to the people, especially to the people of the CNMI,” they said.
The nonprofit group Friends of the Monument, however, said the marine monument proposal is an opportunity for the CNMI to be known globally about its environmental contribution to the world.
