“Once it acquires CUC, MPLT must then hire a qualified firm to run CUC professionally,” he said in an interview on Friday. “MPLT by itself should not manage CUC,” he added. “The problem with CUC is that the government is running it — the solution is to keep government and politics out of it.”
Tenorio, with former Senate President Juan S. Demapan and former CUC Chairman Frank Guerrero, met on Friday with Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, and Rep. Victor B. Hocog, Ind.-Rota and chairman of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications.
Tenorio said like other residents of Saipan, “I’m tired of these power outages — it’s embarrassing; how can we bring in new investors if we don’t even have electricity?”
The Retirement Fund has expressed interest in CUC, but Tenorio believes that only MPLT “is in a position to help” the utilities agency.
MPLT, which manages revenues collected from public lands, is tasked to make “reasonable, careful and prudent investments.”
In a separate interview, Palacios said MPLT and the Retirement Fund can invest in CUC.
“The Retirement Fund has investments in several energy companies in the U.S. and those stocks are doing well,” he said. “But CUC’s problems should be solved immediately and that’s why I prefer to privatize it right away.”
Palacios said MPLT and the Retirement Fund may be allowed to acquire CUC shares, “but [the utilities agency] must be privatized.”
The Senate passed its version of the CUC privatization bill on July 25. Five days later, the House accepted the Senate amendments and transmitted H.B. 16-77, or the “CUC Private Sector Partnership Act of 2008,” to the governor, who has 40 days to consider it.
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. yesterday said the governor had not acted on the bill.
“Deadline is 9/15 or so,” he said in e-mail. “We still have time to review.”
