Rep. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, said “there’s no plan that we can see from the administration.”
The group has scheduled a protest action starting at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 at the Garapan Fishing Base.
The participants will ask President Bush to declare Saipan’s power situation a “humanitarian disaster.” But Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Antonio S. Muna have said that such a request is “too extreme.”
“In the upcoming demonstration people will be petitioning for a receivership to have CUC placed in federal court-appointed receivership and ultimately take CUC out of the hands of local government,” Sablan said.
MP magazine publisher Ed Propst said the governor should meet with the people in a forum to discuss the power crisis.
Sablan believes that the root causes of the power crisis is “mismanagement” and that CUC is “emblematic of everything that is wrong” in the government.
Rep. Edward T. Salas, R-Saipan, said the lack of capable CUC managers is another contributing factor to the crisis.
The group is convinced that the power supply Aggreko will be providing CUC is only a temporary remedy.
Propst said negligence and not old age caused the break down of the power plant engines. If a super typhoon hits Saipan now, he added, the island is likely to have no power for months.
Sablan said they are not just asking for a federal bailout. “Public cooperative action will help rectify, in the long term, this systemic problem.”
