The Attorney General’s office has ordered the investor to immediately cease all business operations and vacate the premises for supposedly failing to secure a permit.
Yesterday, in a letter to the governor, Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, and Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, said they were “shocked” to learn about the AGO’s order.
They noted that the order “stems from what appears to be a lack of action on the part of the Department of Public Lands in working with the Rota Resort owners to approve the sale.”
“If there are political reasons for DPL’s actions, such as the administration merely wishing to dole out land to favored operators, then we emphatically disagree with this course of action,” they said. “No one should play politics with people’s jobs. No one should play politics with the commonwealth’s future.”
The lawmakers said the closure of Rota Resort may result in the unemployment of 108 individuals and hinder future efforts to attract new investors.
“Are we to deny them employment because of governmental bureaucracy? Is it truly in the best interest of the owners of public land to have productive buildings rotting from disuse and productive land lose value due to a lack of maintenance while DPL takes its time deciding issues?” Reyes and Palacios asked.
The previous owner of the facility, Rota Resort LLC, lost $3 million yearly in operating the business.
According to the lawmakers, the new owner, JMSH LLC, infused new cash into the losing business to preserve jobs and save the charter flights to Rota.
They added that the new owner is apparently being “rewarded” by a threat of a lawsuit and accusations of trespassing.
The Legislature believes that “freezing…the land may well result in the creation of a completely worthless property.”
Reyes and Palacios at the same time lauded DPL for “protecting” the people’s land “if that is the sole motivation for its actions.”
But, they added, the new owner of Rota Resort has been waiting for four months for DPL to approve the sale of the property.
Rota lawmakers have also been trying for months to discuss this issue with DPL, but their inquiries have been “stonewalled,” Reyes and Palacios said.
“We can only imagine how the investor interprets the government’s action and inaction in the process, and we worry that it reflects poorly on the CNMI,” they added.
Sen. Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, yesterday said there is a “personal interest” behind the administration’s attempt to close down the resort.
Citing the assistance extended to other investors and businesses through tax breaks and extensions of land leases, Manglona said he’s wondering why the administration has suddenly moved against Rota’s only big investor.
“If you will consider that because of the economic situation on Rota, life is a hundred times harder compared to Saipan, it makes me wonder why this administration wants to shut down the resort,” he said.
