By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety News Staff

THE Marianas Public Lands Authority has deferred again any action on Azmar International’s application to extract pozzolan in Pagan during a board meeting on Friday at Tinian.
MPLA board member Felix Sasamoto said the board members agreed that more time is needed to “review” MPLA’s own draft permit proposal to grant Azmar a conditional approval to mine in Pagan.
Sasamoto said the board members received the draft proposal from MPLA office only on Friday.
“We are going to meet again on Tuesday on Saipan, but like I said, we will still have to discuss the draft proposal.... We don’t expect any decision in the next meeting, just discussions,” Sasamoto told Variety.
MPLA board chairwoman Ana Demapan-Castro declined to comment as of yesterday.
Except for Rota board member Benita Manglona who was on phone conference, the four other MPLA board members – Demapan-Castro, vice chairman Manny Villagomez, Nick Nekai and Sasamoto – were at the Friday meeting.
“We agree that we need to review first the proposal because we received it only on Friday,” Sasamoto added.
Almost three months have passed since MPLA issued on Aug. 17 what was believed at that time to be a “conditional approval” to Azmar. The company had been given 60 days to prove its financial capability to mine Pagan.
MPLA, however, said no conditional approval has been given yet.
Meanwhile, residents standing up for Pagan Island’s protection are urging MPLA to scrutinize the documents that Azmar will be submitting as part of its application to extract pozzolan on Pagan.
Peter J. Pangelinan Perez, representing PaganWatch, said last week that MPLA should verify and evaluate every document that Azmar submits.
“We expect due diligence to ensure that the permit requester is honest, responsible, capable and deserving. We expect that procedures and the law are being followed,” Perez added in a letter to Variety.