Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, said the Senate has made it clear in Senate Resolution 17-14, which it adopted a few months ago, that senators will not support such legislation,
In the next few days, he said the Rota casino will have its soft opening.
He is hoping that the passage of the Saipan casino bill will not adversely affect it.
Tinian also hosts a casino which was opened in 1998.
During the House session yesterday, House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente scolded the bill’s author, Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio, for disrespecting the decision made by Saipan in 2007 when the casino initiative was rejected by voters, and in 1979 when the casino law was repealed by a popular initiative.
Saipan Republican Reps. Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero and Francisco S. Dela Cruz backed Benavente while Saipan Covenant Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro and Rep. Raymond D. Palacios defended the speaker.
Benavente, R-Saipan, said Tenorio was trying to “sell” his bill to the Senate by providing Tinian and Rota with a big chunk of the casino revenue.
Benavente urged the House leadership to stop using the budget shortfall as an excuse to legalize casino gambling on Saipan.
The government is facing a shortfall because it is bloated, he added.
Dela Cruz said the people simply don’t want casino gambling on Saipan.
He said he respects the proponents of the bill, but “more importantly, I respect the sentiments of the people.”
Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, told Benavente and Dela Cruz he does not think their jobless constituents will continue to oppose a job-making proposal.
He reiterated that a Saipan casino will help the people of the island.
Now that the government is broke, the Legislature cannot just sit and do nothing, the former governor said.
Palacios said he and his family were among those who voted against the casino in the past.
“So how sure are you that those people like us who voted ‘no’ then, still [oppose it] now?” he asked the minority.
Ogumoro, for her part, said the House leadership “is dead serious in passing revenue-generating measures that will provide jobless people jobs and take care of the needs of the people who are suffering right now.”
Deleon Guerrero said since the leadership was going to pass the bill anyway, he inserted a provision in the bill stating that any current member of the Legislature “shall not have any direct or indirect financial gain” from the casino operation on Saipan if the measure becomes law.
Aside from Benavente, Deleon Guerrero and Dela Cruz, those who voted against the bill’s passage were Saipan Republican Reps. Antonio P. Sablan, Ray N. Yumul and Ramon A. Tebuteb.
Those who supported the bill, aside from Tenorio, Ogumoro and Palacios, were House Floor Leader George N. Camacho Ind.-Saipan, Reps. Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan, Edmund Villagomez, Covenant-Saipan, Stanley T. Torres, Ind.-Saipan, Fredrick P. Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan, Rafael S. Demapan, Covenant-Saipan, and Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan.
Teresita A. Santos, Ind.-Rota, Trenton B. Conner, R-Tinian, and Eliceo D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, abstained.
Sylvestre I. Iguel, Covenant-Saipan, was absent.
