INDEPENDENT gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Arnold Indalecio Palacios said he is committed to give his best and use his experience to lead the Commonwealth because “it all comes down to what is in your heart.”
While undergoing medical treatment at Queens Healthcare Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Palacios said, “I had a lot of time to reflect on these things.”
He said he anticipates questions about his health, or whether he is still fit to govern the CNMI. “I can assure you that regardless of my physical health, I am still committed to give it my best. The [health] issues that I have right now that have to be addressed, I am addressing them.”
All he needs to do, his doctor advised him, is to stay away from a high-sodium diet and to continue taking maintenance medication for blood pressure and cholesterol. He has quit smoking, he said, and hasn’t smoked for 45 days.
He is on a “strict diet” right now.
Palacios said he is happy to be back home, and certainly happy that he is recovering fairly well.
He said he is not going to hide the issues about his health. He understands that people would make an issue of it, “but I think I have recovered [and I feel] much better….”
He said he needs to take care of himself more, and to deal with stress “moving forward.”
Palacios, who will be 67 in August, said when he was already out of the hospital in Honolulu, he took time to reflect on whether to continue his candidacy or quit.
“I took it very seriously,” he said. “I really looked at the different options. Quit. Right? Pack up and just go home.”
But at the end of the day, he said he thought about the many people who have committed to “the cause,” including the other candidates on the independent AD 2022 slate, including his running mate, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, and the people who support their tandem.
He also thought about what the independent gubernatorial team is offering to the people — “the alternative to what we have today.”
Palacios said he also reflected on “where we are at with the present campaign — it’s like our people are kind of bashing each other right now.”
He said he will recommend that the AD 2022 Team “kind of tone down and really concentrate on the issues and be a lot more civil to each other, to the [Republican] governor’s team and to [the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial candidate] Rep. Tina Sablan’s team.”
“I think we can get the campaign done without creating such divisiveness in our community,” Palacios said.
He said he also realized that when he became speaker of the 16th House of Representatives in 2008, Tina Sablan and Ralph DLG Torres were among the new members. Apatang, who recently celebrated his 74th birthday, was also a member of the 16th House of Representatives.
“And so, maybe we all believe that each of us can serve better. And that is fine. We have to believe in ourselves and at the end of the day, we need to rise above the fray and the challenge is to try and tell the people in our respective teams to stay civil as much as possible. That’s all we can do,” he said.
At the end of the day, Palacios said he, Tina Sablan and the governor “are…work[ing] for all in the community.”
Torres will be 43 in August while Tina Sablan turned 41 in May, but Palacios said age doesn’t matter.
“How young you are, how old you are, how experienced you are —it’s going to all come down to what is in your heart and what you want to give the community, and I have had a lot of time to reflect on these things.”
Thank you, CNMI people
Palacios thanked all the people for all their prayers and support. He said it touched his heart when he saw his supporters lining up along Airport Road to greet him when he and second lady Wella arrived on Saturday.
It was really “quite an ordeal, to say the least,” Palacios said, referring to the days he spent at the Commonwealth Health Center and at Queens Healthcare Center.
But he was happy that his doctors in Hawaii told him he could already go home to the CNMI.
“I am very very grateful to all of the members of our community,” Palacios said. “People called me up, trying to get a hold of me and I know that our community was praying for my health, and I am forever grateful to all the members of our community.”
He also thanked Gov. Torres for making sure that Palacios got the medical attention he needed by facilitating the lt. governor’s medical evacuation to Hawaii.
Palacios also thanked the doctors and nurses at CHC who took care of him for four days before he was transferred to Hawaii, and the first responders and the emergency medical technicians who rushed to the local courthouse.
At the time, Palacios was giving testimony in the criminal case against the governor in Superior Court when the lt. governor experienced excruciating pain in his lower back.
He said he had never experienced such muscle pain like that.
He said he is grateful that he’s okay now. “I’m back and I’m going to continue to recover, rehabilitate and hopefully lead a healthier life.”
Supporters of independent gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, hold signs to welcome him home on Airport Road, Saturday.
From left, the Arnold-Dave 2022 Team campaign chairman, former Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, Joe Pangelinan of the Office of Personnel Management, former Senate President Pete P. Reyes, attorney Mike Evangelista, former Department of Public Works-Technical Services Division Director Anthony Camacho and independent Saipan senatorial candidate Andrew Sablan Salas. They were among those who welcomed Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios at the airport on Saturday.
