IMPERIAL Pacific International, (CNMI) LCC majority owner Cui Lijie on Wednesday “adopted” the San Antonio beach as part of Saipan Mayor Ramon B. Camacho’s island beautification program.
Through an interpreter, she vowed to maintain and beautify the public beach, including the two pavilions in the area built by Rep. Roman Benavente four years ago.
Through the adopt-a-place program of the Saipan Mayor’s Office, organizations or individuals conduct cleanup activities at the place they adopted at least three times a month.
Cui said she will do her best to keep the San Antonio beach clean and beautiful so people can continue to enjoy the place.
She also said that despite the current situation of IPI, “we will not give up.”
She said she loves Saipan, which she considers her second home. “It is peaceful and beautiful with white sand and an ocean with different hues of blue,” she said.
Cui said natural disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic and the “bad decisions” made by former IPI managers had led to the casino-hotel’s current situation. It has not been earning revenue for more than three years now, she added.
Still, she said she is not losing hope that IPI will once again create job opportunities and contribute to the local economy.
Mayor Camacho thanked Cui for adopting the beach which, he added, really shows that she will not run away from a problem.
The mayor also thanked the Department of Lands and Natural Resources-Division of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Public Lands, and the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality for supporting the adopt-a-place program.
For his part, Rep. Roman Benavente also thanked Cui for adopting the beach.
He also recounted the story behind his pavilion project for the area. After Super Typhoon Yutu devastated Saipan and Tinian in Oct. 2018, he said he went to see then-Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Gary Camacho and asked for the old poles that were knocked down by the typhoon. These were used to build pavilions at San Antonio beach, he added.
Imperial Pacific International majority owner Cui Lijie, center, receives an adopt-a-place program certificate from Saipan Mayor Ramon Blas “RB” Camacho, third right, as they pose for a photo with Rep. Roman Benavente, second left, and staff members of regulatory agencies at San Antonio beach on Wednesday.
