THE Marianas Public Land Trust’s principal fund now totals $117.7 million or 1.86 times more than the original principal contributions, according to MPLT’s centric report that was submitted to the Legislature.
MPLT is a constitutional trust whose primary purpose is to manage the net revenues from the leasing of CNMI public lands. The Department of Public Lands, for its part, is responsible for the management of CNMI public lands.
According to MPLT, since 1983, the total amount of distributions received to date from DPL or its predecessor is $54.6 million.
MPLT is tasked with managing its funds in accordance with the investment standards pursuant to the CNMI Constitution. Its primary mission is to invest the funds and grow the principal while distributing the net investment income to the CNMI general fund and to the American Memorial Park trust fund, which was established in accordance with the Covenant and is designated for the maintenance and development of the park.
In 2023, MPLT said it earned $4.1 million.
MPLT said it will continue to follow its mandate to invest and to manage the principle of the trust. Part of its duties is to monitor its investment managers to ensure that the asset allocation is performing in accordance with the related benchmarks.
“In addition to making distributions to the Trust beneficiaries,” MPLT said it “also supports the CNMI government by making loans in order to provide various funding needs. In 2007 MPLT took back an $8.5 million loan to Northern Marianas Housing Corporation, which provided housing loans. The current value of this loan is S2.7 million. In 2018 a term loan was made to the Commonwealth Health Center in the amount of $2,850,000 in order to provide working capital. This loan is being paid off over eight years on a monthly basis. In FY 2019, due to the devastation caused by Typhoon Yutu, the Trust made a loan in the amount of $15 million to pay for typhoon-related expenses. It is in this manner that MPLT provides financial support in addition to annual distributions to its beneficiaries.”
