“The final decision rests with the United States government. We’re patriotic Americans, so we’re asking our nation to please make use of the land that our military is leasing on Tinian,” the speaker said in an interview.
Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, on Saturday met with Takamine Zenshin, speaker of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly in Japan, and Rep. Teruya Kantoku who chairs the Diet Affairs Council and is the Social Democratic Party’s project team leader on the Okinawa military base issue.
The SDP is a member of Japan’s coalition government.
The two Japanese officials were accompanied by Morihara Hideki, secretary for policy/legislative affairs to Rep.
Hattori Ryoichi and Nozaki Satoshi, deputy secretary general of the policy-making board of the SDP.
They proceeded to Tinian where they conducted a public hearing on Sunday about endorsing the island as Futenma’s relocation site.
About 18,000 acres of the island’s public lands are leased to the U.S. military up to 2055.
Tenorio said the military’s increased presence on Tinian is very important to fuel economic development in the CNMI.
He was, however, unhappy with the reception given to the visiting Japanese delegation.
“I was hoping there would be more people there to talk to the people. These Japanese came all the way from Tokyo and Okinawa, but of the 3,000 people on Tinian only 30 people showed up,” he said.
Still, he added, the visiting Japanese lawmakers were convinced the Futenma relocation will be welcomed by Tinian.
“The bottom line is that the delegation was happy with what they heard from leaders and business people who were on Tinian,” the speaker said.
