ROTA Resort & Country Club has not been operating since last year and all its assets, including furniture, have been “liquidated” without the knowledge of the CNMI government, Senate Vice President Donald M. Manglona said.
The chairman of the Rota Legislative Delegation, Manglona said it was only earlier this month when the Department of Public Lands found out that the hotel was “empty.”
Manglona said he and other Rota lawmakers met with then-acting DPL Secretary Pat Rasa and other officials on Feb. 9 to discuss, among other things, the government’s land lease contract with Rota Resort & Country Club.
Manglona said they also mentioned the hotel’s unpaid business gross revenue tax.
Originally operated by SNMI Corp., which was owned by Takasi Shirayama, Rota Resort & Country Club ceased operation many years ago and transferred its lease rights to JMSH LLC owned by Hee Cho.
The lease agreement included an 18-hole golf course. Although no foreign tourists have been visiting Rota, the hotel reopened to cater to visitors from Saipan, including government officials who traveled to Rota on official business.
In a separate interview, Rota Sen. Paul A. Manglona said JMSH LLC owes DPL hundreds of thousands of dollars in land lease payments.
He also noted that the hotel’s one-megawatt power generator serves as the island’s backup generator in times of natural disaster.
With the power generator not operating, its copper wires are in danger of being stolen, Sen. Paul A. Manglona said.
He said he brought the matter to the attention of then-DPL Secretary Sixto Igisomar in November, but “he sidestepped my concern.”
He said he told Igisomar in November that the hotel appeared to have been “essentially abandoned” and its furniture was “being offered for sale at bargain-basement prices.”
As for the golf course, it had “degraded to an overwhelmingly unkempt point…. The course fairways and greens had been left wholly untended, unmaintained, and left for nature to reclaim….”
In his letter to DPL, Sen. Paul A. Manglona also asked for a copy of Rota Resort & Country Club’s land lease contract.
In his reply, Igisomar said the senator had to pay $40.50 for a copy of the 81-page document.
Sen. Paul A. Manglona said DPL, now under acting Secretary Teresita A. Santos, who is from Rota, plans to assign personnel to secure and maintain the hotel’s facilities and golf course.
