Saipan Local Bill 17-33, which Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has yet to sign, appropriated $15,000 for the Northern Islands economic summit.
Delegation chairman Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan, asked the mayor’s office administrator Jerome Aldan and consultant Jess Wabol to explain the importance of the economic summit.
Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan, who pushed for its funding said the economic summit will set priorities in developing the Northern Islands so its residents living on Saipan can finally move back and make the best use of the resources on the remote islands.
Tebuteb said the summit won’t guarantee concrete results, but $15,000 can be used to buy fuel to bring supplies to those who live in the Northern Islands. It is estimated that there are seven people residing on Pagan and Agrigan.
The mayor’s office launches a boat to the Northern Islands every three months and spends $5,000 worth of fuel for each trip.
Rep. Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan, said it all boils down to infrastructure, including homesteads which require bigger funding and are the responsibility of the Department of Public Lands.
“I don’t think we have money right now to hold that economic summit,” Palacios said.
Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, said it is better to set a few priorities that can be accomplished instead of listing “a ton of ideas” that cannot be put into action right away.
Besides homesteads, Cabrera said, putting up a dispensary, a school and a solar power production can be some of the few projects that can be done in the Northern Islands.
These projects can be pursued without holding an economic summit, Cabrera said, without identifying their funding source.
“We should minimize the number of priorities and get them accomplished,” he said.
Wabol and Aldan told the lawmakers they will relay their suggestions to Northern Islands Mayor Tobias DLC. Aldan.
