Commonwealth Casino Commission Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, left, speaks while Vice Chairman Ralph Demapan reads a document during the commission’s monthly meeting on Friday.
THE Commonwealth Casino Commission will not participate in Rep. Marissa Flores’ “political moves,” CCC Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero said on Friday.
Flores, a Precinct 3 independent who ran on the Palacios-Apatang slate in 2022, is seeking reelection this year.
During a House Ways and Means Committee budget hearing last week, Flores and Deleon Guerrero had a heated exchange over the CCC’s fiscal year 2025 budget submission and Imperial Pacific International.
During a session on Tuesday, Flores said the CCC “failed” the Commonwealth.
On Friday during a CCC meeting, Deleon Guerrero recapped what had transpired between the commission and IPI, from the filing of five enforcement actions against the casino investor in 2020 to IPI’s recent filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court.
Throughout these legal processes, Deleon Guerrero said, “we are still on automatic stay.”
“So I don’t understand how Rep. Flores continues to say we should have revoked the casino license. I don’t understand how we can violate IPI’s right to due process,” he added.
He said he is having difficulty understanding Flores’ argument, “other than it’s a political statement or a political move, which CCC is not interested in participating.”
Whatever personal agenda Flores may have, Deleon Guerrero said the CCC was created “by law to regulate the industry. We have, in my opinion, a very strong and robust regulation. We have a very strong, internal control standard. Our public laws, I believe, are strong enough to create [CCC] autonomy,” he added.
Deleon Guerrero said he does not know how else he could explain to Flores that since 2020, the CCC has done its fiduciary duty with the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General.
This included the filing of five enforcement actions against IPI in 2020, the evidentiary hearing in 2021, the CNMI Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that Covid-19 was a force majeure so it reduced to $5 million the $6.6 million fine that CCC imposed on IPI along with the suspension of its license, and the revocation hearing that has been stalled by IPI’s filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Amazingly, Deleon Guerrero said, Flores cited Google as her source when she argued that Covid-19 was not a force majeure.
As policy makers, the CCC chairman said, “we must rely on a Supreme Court ruling and not on Google.”
“Google is not the authority in this issue,” he added. “We listen to the Supreme Court.”
Deleon Guerrero said following the high court’s decision and despite IPI’s “delaying tactics,” the CCC prepared for a revocation hearing.
IPI then filed a motion for a temporary restraining order with the District Court for the NMI, which issued a TRO and granted IPI an injunction against the CCC’s proceedings. The district court also ordered both parties to enter into arbitration.
Deleon Guerrero said the CCC will take criticism which it deserves. “But those criticisms coming from [Flores], we do not deserve those and we do not appreciate those criticisms which have become very personal,” he added. “I will not entertain further discussions on that,” he said.
