DIVISION of Environmental Quality Director John I. Castro yesterday defended his staff’s participation in the 21st Annual Pacific Islands Environment Conference last week.
“If you care about the environment, you should attend that conference,” he said. “Whenever there’s a conference, symposium or meeting about the environment, I recommend attending those, especially among DEQ staff because that’s part of our program plan,” Castro told Variety.
He said the CNMI delegation learned a lot during the one-week conference.
“DEQ has never intended to reduce the number of its staff going to Palau for the conference—unfortunately, some of them had to be excluded,” Castro added.
He said it did not make a difference if Australia brought in only one participant to the event.
“Guam sent more than 50 individuals, and I don’t see any problem,” Castro said.
He said the CNMI delegation participated in discussions regarding solid waste management and the road constructions in Palau.
The original list of CNMI participants consisted of 33 individuals.
A few days before the conference, Thomas Tebuteb, the governor’s special assistant for administration, said the government would reduce the number of delegates.
The number of DEQ’s participating staff and officials was reduced to only five from the original list of nine, Castro said.
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. originally listed down eight officials.
As of yesterday however, the number of CNMI government officials who were on official trip to Palau for the event could not be determined.
