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06/27/2025—The five-day public meetings for the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed CNMI Joint Military Training will conclude on Rota today after separate two-day engagements on Tinian and Saipan.
Naturally, everyone is now asking what’s next and Marine Corps Forces Pacific executive director Mark Hashimoto’s answer is, first, is the publication of a final draft, followed by a certain period, before the whole process culminates with a record of decision.
To begin with, he emphasized the 75-day comment period, which started last June 6 and ends on Aug. 20, is already longer than normal and is indicative that the military indeed wants to work collaboratively with the public.
“We're not trying to rush anybody through some things or through anything. And we know that, probably there's never enough time to consider every possible thing for every possible person. But at the end of that 75-day public comment period, then we take a look at all the comments and we figure out, okay, which are the ones that we can actually take action on?” he told Marianas Press during Day 2 of the public meeting on Saipan last June 26 at Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.
Hashimoto said he expects the record of decision to come out in May 2026, which gives the U.S. Department of Defense enough time to be compliant with the National Environmental Protection Act.
As for an extension on the comment period, he wouldn't necessarily rule it out, saying it will all depend on the public comments.
Liana Hofschneider, a Saipan resident whose family’s roots is on Tinian, believes an extension is warranted and that the DoD should hold public meetings in the villages.
“[They should bring] it closer to the homes because a lot of folks are not really used to come out to venues like this. This is very different from the other times that we see this public education, you know, public comment education...we need to get it more into the villages, you know, down to our local folks in the villages. As you can see, the faces, we all meet up each other and you can see the very familiar faces, right? We're really not seeing the folks in the village,” she said.
The president of Matua Council for Native Chamorro Advancement added that the military should also hold public meetings in high schools and at the Northern Marianas College to involve the youth more since the Revised DEIS is a decision that will affect the lives of the island community in the next 20 years.
Another suggestion she volunteered is that the over 1,000-page Revised DEIS be segmented so it can be more palatable to the public.
The voluminous nature of the Revised DEIS isn’t lost on Angela De La Cruz, who said while some of her concerns were addressed by the subject matter experts that manned the posterboards, she has actually only read 15-20% of the entire document.
At some point during June 26 public meeting, members from Prutehi Guåhan and Marianas for Palestine started their protest by chanting “This is our homeland,” “Our islands are sacred,” “We do not consent,” among others.
Prutehi Guåhan’s Monaeka Flores said they were protesting for a second straight day on Saipan to support and to stand in solidarity with local activists and protesters in opposing the CNMI Joint Military Training.
She also said the use of posterboards to explain the Revised DEIS in lieu of actual public presentations and town hall-style discussions is denying the community critical dialogue in fully understanding the military’s plans on Saipan, Rota, and especially Tinian.
“In a style like this, where it's a posterboard-sort of show-and-tell, and people are having these conversations, these conversations are happening in silos, and it's a huge disservice to the community to not be able to also voice their concerns”
Marianas for Palestine’s Abed Salam Castro Younis said his group joined the protest as they’re against the U.S. military using the Marianas as a training ground for atrocities happening in the Gaza Strip.
“I just want to point out that this is a suicide drone that is being used in Gaza right now. They attach explosives to this and kill civilians with this. This is a quadcopter that is actively shooting civilians in Gaza right now. Actively killing children right now. So, to have these, to support, using these death tools here on our homeland, tainting our beautiful image, I'm here to fight against that,” he said while pointing to one of the event’s posterboards that showed U.S. troops training in what seems to be on a tropical island.
During one of their protests, Hofschneider approached Flores to ask her group to be more respectful of the ongoing public meeting.
“When they're making that noise, you know, it's hollowing up. So, we cannot basically hear each other. You just have to shout to talk, you know, to understand...I asked the leader and I said this yesterday, too, is if she could, you know, not [do that],” she said, adding that on Day 1 it wasn’t as disruptive as the groups started their protest near the end.
Flores, for her part, that they had to change tactics and become more vocal as the public meeting didn’t give them an opportunity to voice out their concerns in public.
“It is a shame that a microphone isn't offered so that everybody can hear her questions and the responses that she's getting. And everybody here gets a chance to also say what's in their hearts and on their minds. And, so I understand she's very frustrated,” she said.
The final public meeting on the Revised DEIS will be held today, June 27, 2025, at the Rota Mayor’s Office.
Report by Mark Rabago and Thomas Manglona II
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