From left, Department of Public Lands-Compliance Division Director Gregory Deleon Guerrero, special advisor David Sablan, DPL Secretary Teresita A. Santos, and DPL-Real Estate Division Director Boni Royal meet with reporters on Wednesday morning in the DPL conference room.
MARIANAS Global Inc. has failed to pay rent and is not in compliance with the Managaha Island Master Concession Operator Agreement, Department of Public Lands-Compliance Division Director Gregory Deleon Guerrero said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“We issued a notification to Marianas Global to rectify their non-compliance with the Managaha concession agreement, and it involves payments, BGRT, and all other things,” he said.
Asked to clarify, Deleon Guerrero said, “Whenever there’s a notification of non-compliance, there’s usually a violation of the agreement that needs to be rectified. So we’re giving them due process.”
He said the notice was issued last month and MGI was given five days to pay rent and 30 days to comply with the other provisions of the agreement.
He said unless an official Open Government Act request is made to their office, he cannot disclose how many months MGI has failed to pay rent.
Variety was unable to get a comment from MGI.
Annual rent
According to the Managaha Island Master Concession Operator Agreement between DPL and Marianas Global, MGI as concessionaire “shall pay an annual base rent of $800,000.”
In addition to the base rent, the concessionaire “shall pay DPL 9% of its business gross receipts derived from the agreement.”
For his part, DPL special advisor David Sablan said they want to make sure that MGI complies with the mandates of the agreement, which was signed on April 18, 2023 (not May 18, 2023 as earlier stated).
Asked who requested the proposed changes to the Managaha commercial use rules, Sablan said, “It was not requested by MGI. This has been an issue since 2012. Then, DPL tried to implement a rule based on the regulations and the agreement with the former concessionaire, Tasi Tour, the predecessor of MGI. That time, DPL was trying to implement a rule because, prior to the signing of [an agreement with the] concessionaire, the marine sports operators had been doing business. DPL tried to impose the rule that the marine sports operators were no longer allowed, and only the master concessionaire [Tasi Tour] was allowed. It was challenged in court, DPL and Tasi Tour lost the case for only one reason, procedural error. Because DPL did not follow the Administrative Procedure Act.”
Sablan said what DPL “is doing now is almost the same exact process, but following the previous court order, and following the APA.”
On July 19, 2012, the Superior Court granted the request of Island Marine Sports Inc., Aquatic Marine Co. Inc., d.b.a. Amigo Aquatic Sports, Automarine Inc., Seahorse Inc. and BSEA Inc. for an injunction against DPL and Tasi Tours.
The five marine sports operators sought to invalidate DPL’s proposed rule forbidding them from picking up customers from Managaha and taking them on water sports activities such as banana boat rides and parasailing
Public hearings
DPL has announced that it will conduct two public hearings regarding the proposed amendments to the Managaha commercial rules and regulations.
Both hearings will start at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 and 19 in the DPL conference room at Joeten Dandan Commercial Building.
Marine sports operators are opposed to the proposed new rules.
