Nikolao Pula, director of the U.S. Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, also refused to comment on Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez’ corruption case which involves federal funds.
“I don’t want to talk about the situation of the lt. governor because there’s an investigation,” he said in a news briefing yesterday afternoon. “That’s going to take its own course.”
“What I know is there’s been talks about a federal takeover…or receivership, and I’ve to be truthful — there is no federal agency ready to say that ‘I’m going to come and takeover the situation on Saipan.’ ”
Over 400 Saipan residents staged a protest action on Sept. 17 to urge the federal government to step into the island’s power crisis.
Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio has already asked President Bush for federal assistance.
But Pula said there is no federal agency that can deal with the power crisis in the CNMI.
He lauded the administration for its efforts to solve the power crisis and defended Gov. Benigno R. Fitial against his critics.
“This is not a problem that [he] created,” said Pula, adding that the island’s power crisis has been going on for years.
The governor, who has sued the federal government over the CNMI federalization law, is hoping to tap federal grants to explore alternative energy sources as well as to rehabilitate the antiquated engines at the island’s main source of electricity — Power Plant 1.
