DEPARTMENT of Public Lands Secretary Teresita Santos said the Saipan Mayor’s Office improperly obtained quarry raw materials and processed quarry materials, and now wants DPL to pay for them.
In response to Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho’s request for more aggregate quarry materials for public use, Santos said in a statement: “Prior to my advent to the DPL, several private quarry operators [had] existing Temporary Occupancy Agreement or TOA for quarry.”
Article 11 (Public Benefit) of the TOA for quarry specifically provides that, “With the prior consent of DPL, CNMI government agencies shall be exempted from paying any charges for quarry materials extracted from the quarry site operated by permitee….”
Most, if not all, of the existing quarry permits were executed during the tenure of former DPL Secretary Marianne C. Teregeyo, Santos said.
“During this time, DPL issued a letter to the Municipality of Saipan and quarry operators, placing a cap of 100 cubic yards of raw materials that the Municipality is authorized to obtain free of charge. However, any acquisition of quarry materials above and beyond the cap, shall be the responsibility of CNMI government agencies [who must] pay the quarry operators. Article 11 also provides that government agencies are responsible for any and all costs associated with such project to include heavy equipment rental for the extraction, loading and delivery from the quarry site to the project site. Furthermore, processed materials are excluded from this provision and will be charged accordingly by the permittee,” Santos said.
For the record, she added, “the current Mayor of Saipan has obtained unprocessed raw materials above the 100 cubic-yard cap from all existing quarries, in violation of Article 11. The MOS also obtained unauthorized processed quarry materials, also in violation of Article 11. The new MOS has never communicated with DPL regarding quarry materials acquisition since it took over from the former Mayor.”
Santos said DPL neither gave the current MOS consent to obtain quarry raw materials above the 100 cubic-yard cap, nor gave consent to obtain processed quarry materials.
“It was only after the MOS submitted an invoice from some quarry operators for DPL to remit payment for the processed quarry materials that we (DPL) learned that the MOS improperly obtained such materials in violation of Article 11 of the TOA,” she said.
“Hence, DPL sent a letter to the MOS on July 11, 2023, in response to his letter of July 10, 2023. The quarry materials that were acquired by the MOS were not the obligation of DPL, thus, DPL should not be made to pay. In addition, DPL does not arbitrarily breach any of the terms and conditions of the TOA it enforces…,” she said.
To address the MOS quarry issue, DPL met with quarry operators last week to further discuss the matter, Santos said.
She said majority of the quarry operators want to maintain the cap of 100 cubic yards free of charge for raw materials to CNMI government agencies.
“Increasing the cap will force the quarry operators not to remit royalty and BGR payments to DPL which is in violation of the stipulated quarry permit between the parties. Furthermore, this may be an issue that the Marianas Public Land Trust could raise against DPL,” Santos said.
DPL offered the MOS a quarry site, but it was not accepted “for the reason that MOS does not have the personnel and equipment to operate one,” she added.
“As the Secretary of the Department of Public Lands, I am held to strict standards of fiduciary care to ensure that DPL manage and administer the Commonwealth’s public lands under the provisions of Article XI of the NMI Constitution and Public Law 15-02, in the best interest of all persons of Northern Marianas Descent,” Santos said.
She said “if DPL is faced with legal action, I have the duty to answer the litigation and not anyone else. Thus, I proceed cautiously with every decision and action I make for the Department. And at the end of the day, I am accountable to all NMDs, the true collective owners of all Article X1 lands.”
