Two such bills have been referred to Reyes’ committee: H.B. 16-52, which proposes to permit borrowers of the Commonwealth Development Authority to assign land compensation due from the government to pay for the balance of their CDA loans; and H.B. 16-114, which proposes to provide equitable relief to CDA borrowers.
“Anything that concerns CDA, the committee will ask for the agency’s written testimony and recommendations because the last thing we want to do is jeopardize the contractual agreements, especially loan agreements, between any party,” said Reyes, R-Saipan.
“It would require a lot of scrutiny from the committee because these bills would impact the agency in the long term,” he added.
House Bill 16-52 was introduced by Rep. Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, while H.B. 16-114 was offered by Rep. Victor B. Hocog, Ind.-Rota.
Reyes said he will not favor anything that would negatively impact CDA.
“I am not in favor of anything that would derail or break a contractual agreement especially when it comes to loans because we have a process set in place,” he said.
He assured that his panel’s recommendations will be based on “prudence.”
CDA is opposed to the passage of both bills.
According to CDA, once H.B. 16-52 becomes law, the agency “will forego any income stream for an unknown period of time.”
CDA believes that loan agreements, promissory notes, terms of conditions of contracts would be useless, nullified and unenforceable if the bill is enacted.
CDA said land compensation funds are uncertain.
H.B. 16-114, it added, will also “adversely impact” CDA.
