By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE House minority bloc is urging Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to choose a person with integrity and credibility to lead the newly created Department of Public Lands and prevent abuses related to public lands that have happened in the past.
“We hope and pray that the governor will appoint someone who can do justice to the public lands and the people of Northern Marianas descent,” said House Minority Leader Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan.
“Someone with high integrity and unquestionable ethical standard,” he added.
The governor yesterday named his special policy adviser, John S. Del Rosario Jr., as the acting secretary of public lands.
Palacios and Rep. Ramon Tebuteb, R-Saipan, told Variety yesterday that they expect the Senate to scrutinize the governor’s nominee before confirming her or him.
“We hope that the Senate does its part and really looks at the background of the public lands secretary who will be nominated. They (senators) cannot just say, ‘This person is qualified, congratulations,’ ” Palacios said.
The two lawmakers said the public lands department is “a very important agency in the administration because land is a very precious asset in the CNMI.”
They said the agency will deal with issues of homesteads, public land leases, land permits and the pozzolan deposits on Pagan island.
Pozzolan is a volcanic ash used in manufacturing cement.
An environmental watchdog group, PaganWatch, wants the government to conduct a thorough study on the pozzolan deposits on Pagan and issue a request for bids so that a qualified financier can mine the volcanic minerals.
Palacios and Tebuteb said these are very important issues that should be carefully considered by the newly created department.
Palacios reiterated that the law creating the new department was rushed.
“I thought it was rushed. We still have a lot of questions. In essence it’s abolishing the autonomy of MPLA. We can play with semantics. Soften it and put on mascara but it’s still the same thing,” he said.
He said their major fear is that there are no guidelines outlined in the new law that would prevent possible abuses.
“There have been a lot of abuses in the past. Cases of land grabbing,” Palacios said.