{"id":32205,"date":"2022-07-29T04:51:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T07:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=32205"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:25:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:25:47","slug":"ccc-appoints-martin-mendiola-as-casino-commissioner-representing-rota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-appoints-martin-mendiola-as-casino-commissioner-representing-rota","title":{"rendered":"CCC appoints Martin Mendiola as casino commissioner representing Rota"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martin Mendiola will replace\u00a0Diego M. Songao as a member of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) has named Martin Mendiola to replace\u00a0Diego M. Songao<\/strong> as casino commissioner representing the island of Rota. Songao resigned as a commissioner<\/a>\u00a0in September 2021 due to health reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendiola has been sworn in by governor Ralph DLG Torre. He will serve Songao’s remaining term, until April 30, 2024. At a special Senate session, seven senators approved the appointment while minority bloc senator Paul A. Manglona of Rota abstained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Mariana’s Variety, Manglona did not object to Mendiola’s qualification, but he said the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations should\u00a0question the source of funding for casino commissioners’ salaries<\/strong>. Last year, the CCC announced\u00a020 layoffs without cause<\/a>\u00a0to reduce operation costs due to a lack of funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendiola said: “My goal, if confirmed, will be to become true partners with my colleagues to mediate the current situation with the casino and find amicable solutions that will continue to grant opportunities for both parties \u2014 our great Commonwealth and the casino license holder \u2014 to succeed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: “I strongly believe in providing objective flexibility to find legal alternatives to support the license holder so they may be able to accomplish their goals and objectives, so that, in turn, we will help us accomplish ours.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendiola praised the\u00a0CCC’s opposition to IPI\u2019s motion for a preliminary injunction<\/a>\u00a0that prevents the regulator from revoking IPI\u2019s casino licence and added: \u201cIf the casino industry becomes a success, it will also attract other investors willing and interested in coming to our Commonwealth, and help support our tourism industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Mendiola will replace\u00a0Diego M. Songao as a member of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Martin Mendiola has been appointed to the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) in the Northern Mariana Islands, replacing Diego M. Songao. Mendiola aims to foster partnership with the casino license holder, seek legal alternatives to support industry success, and attract further investment to the Commonwealth's tourism sector, despite the CCC's prior financial challenges and ongoing legal disputes with IPI.","focusai_entities":"Martin Mendiola, Diego M. Songao, Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Ralph DLG Torre, Paul A. Manglona, Mariana\u2019s Variety, IPI","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Rota","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Impact","query":"How will the Commonwealth Casino Commission address its operational funding challenges to ensure robust regulatory oversight and avoid future staffing reductions?"},{"label":"IPI Injunction Resolution","query":"What specific \"legal alternatives\" will the new commissioner pursue to resolve the ongoing dispute with IPI while upholding the integrity of the regulatory framework?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[24018,21613],"class_list":["post-32205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-ccc","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32222,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32205\/revisions\/32222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}