Where's the money???

Saipan Tribune
Wednesday, October 04, 2006

It's been a year since the last San Francisco De Borja Fiesta on Rota, yet the prize for last year's Battle of the Bands competition has yet to be released to the winners.

Split Attitude won the grand prize last year, beating seven other bands to take home the $3,000 grand prize. They did get the trophies for their victory but they have yet to see a cent of the prize money.

Band spokesperson John Torres told Saipan Tribune that it's been a year since then but the Rota fiesta celebration committee has been giving them the "brush off" on the matter.

Torres said other bands such as Whebo Splash, now known as Frozen Nipple, have also not received their prizes.

"We have been trying our best to claim our winnings but have just been given the run-around," he said, adding that his group has forwarded many letters to the committee but they have yet to receive any response.

"When we won last year, we were told that the committee would get back to us in a week to give us our checks but weeks passed [and] we never heard from them," Torres said. t.

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Marianas Variety
November 27, 2005

WE, the band members of Split Attitude and Whe Bo Splash would like to attest to the recent letter submitted to Variety by the Luta Tribe. We, the members of Split Attitude and Whe Bo Splash have also been making numerous inquiry calls to the DCCA office both on Rota and on Saipan as well. Rota’s DCCA office have also been informing us that they were waiting for a supposed grant to be received from the Arts Council on Saipan. Follow up calls have been placed to the Saipan DCCA office, the Arts Council, and the Language Commission which all have claimed that they are not involved with the prize money funding. All of the aforementioned offices on Saipan have denied the Rota DCCA office’s claim of either being responsible or involved with the prize money funding but have agreed to assist us in investigating the situation. However, it seems that the efforts made were fruitless and inconclusive.

Further efforts by the band members to contact the person in charge of the prize money funding at the Rota’s DCCA office (Mr. Joe Rosario) have been unsuccessful as either there is no answer and a fax machine comes on or when answered by a clerk, excuses of either being at the hospital or off-island are given. Messages left for Mr. Rosario to return our calls have also all gone unanswered.

It is with regret that we have to come to this situation where the media has become involved. We did not wish for this to happen. We, like the Luta Tribe, would also simply like to receive our prize money that was advertised at the San Francisco De Borja Fiesta Battle of the Bands on Rota. We also do not wish to complicate matters even further, but we will take further action if it appears that all current efforts and attempts to resolve this dilemma have proven unsuccessful.

To all of our families, friends, and fans on the isl Band, and our parents inquired with the Battle of the Bands Committee about our prize money and we just got the run-around.

We were told that the Resident Director is in Saipan to obtain the money, that they are waiting for the money to come from Saipan, that they are waiting for the Rota mayor's signature (which was not true), that the Arts Council in Saipan is responsible for the prize money and that they will follow-up on the prize money. We are tired of all the excuses. We want our prize money that the Battle of the Bands Committee on Rota advertised.

Leiona Mesa, Alvin Cruz Jr., Joaquin King, Arton Taimanao, Mark Miral and Scott Songsong
Luta Tribe