IMPERIAL Pacific International on Sunday night welcomed 2021 with a 30-minute New Year fireworks display while its furloughed employees watched “with bleeding hearts.”
Imperial Pacific International chief executive officer Donnie Browne, right, joins the crowd watching the New Year fireworks display at the IPI hotel-casino in Garapan on Sunday evening.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
IPI invited community members and CNMI officials, but, among the latter, only Senate President Victor B. Hocog showed up.
“There goes our money,” said an IPI employee who was furloughed after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down IPI’s casino and the local tourism industry in March.
“Our hearts were bleeding while we watched,” another furloughed IPI employee said.
None of them wanted to give their full names because they said IPI officials are known to “retaliate” at employees who give statements to the media.
“We thought IPI was going to announce some good news, like, you know, we’re going back to work,” an IPI employee said.
“But there was no good news, only fireworks,” the employee added.
He said IPI has not provided them their paid time off, or three-fourths of their biweekly salary that IPI should have paid once they were furloughed.
Other furloughed employees said they remain dependent on the help of friends and members of the island community. The employees said they are now being evicted for failing to pay rent.
“We wished IPI spent the fireworks money on us — we need money so badly,” a furloughed employee said.
“IPI has never given us a single cent,” another employee added.
Not IPI money
In an interview after the fireworks display, IPI chief executive officer Donald Browne said the Saipan casino investor does not have money to spend on the fireworks.
Fireworks lit up the facade of Imperial Pacific International’s hotel-casino in Garapan on Sunday evening.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
“If we had funding, we would give it to our employees,” he added.
The fireworks, he said, were donated by a “benefactor,” which he did not name.
“We had some people that, as we have talked about, are going to invest in our company,” Browne said.
Asked how much the fireworks cost the “benefactor” Browne said, “I have no idea.”
The fireworks display aimed to “bring some hope,” he said.
He added that IPI now has money for payroll. “We just had a little U-turn because we have a problem in the bank,” Browne said without elaborating.
“We are focused on paying the employees and we are looking at substantial financing so we could go back to business and take care of all the vendors and clean up a lot of the other things,” he added.
In his brief remarks prior to the fireworks display, Browne said:
“Although IPI has been with the CNMI for a little less than six years, the company has shared the same adversities that all other businesses have faced in this period of time.
“Our company has struggled, our employees have struggled, and our ability to create a steady stream of income has suffered. Throughout all of these unexpected adversities, IPI did its best to honor the commitments that it made to the CNMI back in 2015. Since the award of the casino license, IPI created thousands of jobs and generated countless business opportunities for hundreds of local businesses. To date, IPI has invested around $1 billion in [the] CNMI and paid over $300 million in taxes and fees to the government.”
