“WHY should the people of the CNMI trust you as a potential governor?”
This was a question posed by a community member to Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios during a virtual gubernatorial forum hosted by local radio talk show Marianas Agupa.
“We’ve discussed this issue several times,” he replied. “One of the biggest issues that I have as a lt. governor is I don’t really babysit the governor.”
Regarding the various investigations into Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ expenditures, Palacios said, “I think once an investigation starts, I think it behooves us to let the process take its course.”
He added, “I’m in a tenuous situation because I am the lieutenant [governor]. If I [came] out and [said], ‘Yeah, this guy, this guy violated all kinds of law. Put him in jail.’ Then what? Let’s be honest. People will say, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s because he wants to be governor.’ And that comment is still out there today.”
Palacios said, “We’re…in this situation where sometimes it’s better not to say anything, especially when there are investigations…. Ten months to the day that we were inaugurated, the FBI went and raided the governor’s office and his home. I was disturbed by it… Was I supposed to know that he was about to get raided? No. I didn’t know what…the purpose of the FBI raid on the governor’s was, and to this day, I haven’t really [known]. I’m there to serve the public, not to be the detective to tell on the governor.”
About a year prior to that raid, he added, the CNMI was hit by Super Typhoon Yutu.
“We were just recovering; we were in full recovery mode from Yutu. Our economy shut down. We’re all trying to recover from Yutu,” Palacios said.
He added that he is happy that he appeared before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee after being subpoenaed by the panel.
“I have nothing to hide here. They had all the records provided by [the Department of] Finance themselves. The lt. governor of the Commonwealth doesn’t have oversight authority [over] the governor,” Palacios said.
“Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to be the watchtower, [be a tattletale] on the governor. The records are going to be out there, and I don’t do oversight. Like I said, I don’t even have access today, now, to any financial records. I sometimes struggle with purchase orders from my office, from the lt. governor’s office, accessing the financial management system that was recently put in place. But that’s where we are at today. Do you hear me screaming about it? No. I’m just going to take it on the chin and survive this.”
Palacios said he is certain that there are people, even in the Department of Finance, who are shaking their heads at him and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Christina “Tina” M. Sablan, for not having access to the expenditure records of the administration.
“Yeah, I’m the lt. governor, but obviously, the governor is putting out an order to shut me down completely from any function in the departments. There is no written order, but that is the order that I have consistently been told by many, many Cabinet members and department heads, and they don’t necessarily agree with it, but they also fear retaliatory action by this administration and his chief of staff [Wil Castro],” Palacios said.
As for the lt. governor’s first-class off-island travel, he said he had spoken with the Office of the Attorney General about traveling first-class after attending Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s inauguration several years ago.
He said he traveled in economy class to Guam, but traveled in first-class on the return flight to Saipan.
He noted that he had traveled after receiving an invitation to attend the inauguration.
“I thought it was an upgrade. I don’t understand how that ended up being a first-class [trip] returning to Saipan. It’s a 40-minute trip. I don’t need to travel first-class from here to Guam. We don’t need to do that. I believe that expenditure, that travel was paid out of the governor’s account. So, did I get an upgrade? Maybe? I don’t get it. I just don’t remember that,” he said.
Nonetheless, he said he has reached out to the AG’s office to look into his own first-class travel.
“I want to take a look. I’m going to take a look at my records, travel records and if there are any discrepancies, we would need to discuss it, and then, if necessary, I will pay the fine, I will pay the government…. I’ve offered that, but let me tell you another thing that I found out, I know I do not have access to my own records at Finance.”
The governor’s running mate in the 2018 election, Palacios is now the Independent gubernatorial candidate whose running mate is another former Republican, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang.
Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios appears before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee in the House chamber on Sept. 15, 2021
