By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

SAYING he has had enough of “poor and inexcusable reporting practiced by these so-called professional journalists,” Republican Party spokesman Kimo M. Rosario has offered his resignation.
But Rosario did not say whether he is also resigning as the party’s secretary.
In a letter to the Variety, he complained about the story “GOP’s Precinct 4 Club Won’t Recognize Amendments to Bylaws” published yesterday.
He said “bits of information from the newly adopted amendments of GOP bylaws (were) transformed…into statements of my own.”
According to Rosario, what his e-mail stated was that “since I am not from Precinct IV and I am a staunch supporter of the party’s call for ‘unity,’ I have decided to maintain my ‘no comment’ position on the Precinct IV issue. I would like to suggest that you interview party members from this precinct instead.”
He said he “never uttered the…statements” attributed to him by the Variety story.
“I asked myself, why would this reporter engage in this type of activity? Is it because ‘controversy’ or ‘dissension’ within a political party is what sells newspapers? Whatever happened to keeping the public informed with true facts? Doesn’t this mean anything anymore?”
In an interview, GOP Precinct Club 4 chairman Luis Kapileo said they regret Rosario’s decision to resign as the party spokesman.
“We believe that Kimo is dedicated and has intellectual independence — as such, he’s an asset to the Republican Party,” Kapileo said. “We believe that if all the facts had been provided to Kimo, he would have supported the Precinct 4 club.”
He said their club will continue to oppose the amendments to the party bylaws passed during the GOP meeting on Thursday.
The amendments, he added “took away public participation on the precinct level and placed it with the central committee.”
The dispute stemmed from a meeting held by the club in January which resulted in the selection of Sylvestre Iguel and Barbara Yamada as the party’s House candidates for Precinct 4.
Candido B. Taman is the incumbent Republican representing the precinct in the House of Representatives. He earlier indicated that he would seek a second term.
One of the amendments approved by the GOP on Thursday states that precinct clubs “will select and nominate professional qualified, and competent individuals to represent the Republican Party in the House of Representatives and submit the nominations to the (party’s) board of directors for endorsement.”
Kapileo said the passage of the amendments was done “improperly.”