“There is no real emergency,” the former senator said in his letter to the governor.
The previous emergency declaration was justified but the problem had already been resolved, he said.
“There is no such pressing problem at the dock today,” Dela Cruz added, saying that the governor should not reprogram the funds from Tinian airport development to harbor repairs.
Stressing the importance of airport improvement, Dela Cruz said Tinian needs to have its airport development project completed.
Dela Cruz at the same time criticized Tinian Mayor Jose P. San Nicolas’s “unauthorized abalone and seaweed farm,” saying his opponent “has no plan to spend the money.”
The airport, he said, will produce significant revenues while the abalone and seaweed farm will not.
“Clearly, the mayor only wants cash to protect his unauthorized abalone and seaweed farm in the harbor, for which he has no proper permits from [the Commonwealth Ports Authority, Coastal Resources Management or Fish and Wildlife],” Dela Cruz said.
The installation of the instrument landing system at the Tinian West Field International Airport is more important, he added.
He said the ILS and the fuel farm will result in charter flights for the guests of the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, and the revenue generated for both the CNMI general fund and the Tinian municipal fund will grow significantly.
Dela Cruz said this is why the federal government agreed to the original reprogramming of Tinian capital improvement project funds for the ILS and the fuel farm.
He noted that Tinian Dynasty has been asking for the airport project to be completed since the hotel began construction over a decade ago.
“But Mayor San Nicolas has ignored their needs, in favor of his noni, abalone and seaweed projects, none of which have produced a nickel in revenues,” Dela Cruz said.
Dela Cruz appealed to the governor’s “good business sense” and not reprogram funds away from the full development of Tinian’s airport, “a sure revenue generator, in favor of an abalone farm, a sure loser.”
“With the airport funds, we can make West Field a real international airport and be a major contributor to the CNMI general fund,” he added.
San Nicolas is the party mate of the governor, the Covenant Party’s standard bearer.
