CNMI's Rota supplies shortage due to ease

Transcript

A food and commodities' shortage on Rota in the Northern Marianas is expected to ease with the opening of the island's East Harbour last weekend.

The acting governor Jude Hofschneider hoff-shnide-uh also waived port fees to all vessels delivering essential goods to the CNMI"s southernmost island.

Our correspondent in CNMI, Mark Rabago, told Sally Round Rota has been under a state of emergency for the last ten days.

MARK RABAGO: The state of emergency helps (prevent) the sellers there jacking up prices and basically the government is stepping in to regulate.

SALLY ROUND: Why  did it get to that? How did it come to be a state of emergency? Is it due to bad weather?

MR: Not really bad weather. It's just the state of the other port that they usually use - it is degraded to the point that the boats cannot go there anymore, the big boats that carry commodities and supplies, from either Saipan or Guam cannot enter there so they have got a state of emergency and opened this new port unilaterally.   

SR: And you say that people were taking advantage of the situation?

MR: No, not really. It's just that with the government stepping in, it could help regulate. Also, by putting in a state of emergency like the acting governor did, he waived the port fees for all vessels, which he cannot do if it's not under a state of emergency. The CTA (Commonweath  Transportation Authority) could step in and say 'no, no, you still have to pay the docking fees and all the port fees, so, it's one way of government stepping in and helping the people.

SR: This is not the first time Rota has had a shortage of supplies like this, I understand?

MR: Yes, yes. Even Tinian sometimes cargo ships, in bad weather, the ports are damaged, they usually just supply by sea, if they supply by air, commodities and food stuffs, they're limited by tonnage.

SR: Are there moves to develop the port to the east harbour side or improve the west harbour side?

MR: Aside from the port, I think it is also the ships. There are not many ships, interisland ferry service that is going on... the Commonweath  Transportation Authority is trying to come up with a feasibility study to have a regular ferry service to service all three islands ... that would help alleviate these kind of problems.

SR: And would that require some sort of subsidy from the government?

MR: Yes, of course. They have a study right now and I think they have got some federal money. Also Guam is helping out. They also want to have a Saipan and Guam regular ferry service, that could carry passengers and also cars. So that's something that they are looking at.

SR: And what is the chance of these islands becoming more self-sufficient so they can withstand problems such as transportation?

MR: We are really really highly reliant on goods imported from overseas. We cannot sustain ourself agriculturally and we import a lot of meat stuffs and other supplies from outside so it is hard to say if we can be self-reliant. We've got used to Spam and other goods (laughs).

SR: And of course rice is one of the staples..

MR: Yeah, we don't grow rice here.