THE Marianas Public Land Trust is asking Gov. David M. Apatang to urge the Senate to reconsider adding to House Bill 24-50 a provision allowing MPLT to collateralize securities.
On Sept. 9, 2025, the House of Representatives unanimously passed an amended H.B. 24-50 that authorizes the financially strapped CNMI government to borrow $29 million from MPLT and, as a condition of the loan, “to defend, hold harmless, and indemnify MPLT trustees individually and collectively.”
In a joint letter to the governor last week, MPLT trustees, led by Chair Phillip Mendiola-Long, said that in addition to the indemnification provision, they had asked the House to include language granting MPLT discretion to enter into margin transactions with a brokerage firm to collateralize securities. The trustees said this flexibility is necessary to secure financial instruments in the trust’s best interest.
“Unfortunately,” the trustees told the governor, “the version of the bill the House passed only included the indemnification provision.”
They asked the governor to ask the senators to reconsider the margin account provision. While MPLT respects the House’s concerns regarding the constitutional limitation against “two-subject” legislation, the trustees said, “It is imperative that the authorizing legislation address and meet MPLT’s requirements.”
Simply put, the trustees said, under the substitute bill now in the Senate, MPLT would have to liquidate $29 million from the general fund corpus. This would reduce the total funds available for investment from approximately $120 million to $91 million.
With debt service projected at 7.5% per annum, repayment of the loan could extend from seven years to as many as 12 years, according to MPLT forecasts. At the same time, the trust would still need to meet obligations for private equity investments and maintain funds for the existing line of credit for Economic Development Authority projects over the next seven years.
In the trustees’ view, allowing authorization with a margin account provides MPLT and the CNMI the best opportunity to manage options. “With a margin account authorized, MPLT can fund the $29 million loan … without substantially liquidating the fund corpus, while retaining sufficient resources to meet debt service and investment obligations,” the trustees said.
The trustees emphasized that this approach is both prudent and necessary to protect the trust’s financial stability and ensure continued support for CNMI projects.
