John Oliver Delos Reyes Bolis Gonzales smiles as former Rep. Ray Basa, co-vice chairman of the Committee to Elect Gonzales, signs election commission documents while Ignacia I. Piteg and CEC administrative officer AJ Lisua look on.
John Oliver Gonzales poses for a photo with his campaign committee, family members and other supporters after filing his independent candidacy for the U.S. Congress at the Commonwealth Election Commission on Monday morning.
JOHN Oliver Delos Reyes Bolis Gonzales, an independent candidate for the U.S. Congress, said he is not beholden to any special interest, “other than our people’s interest.”
Accompanied by his campaign committee, family members and other supporters, he officially filed his candidacy with the Commonwealth Election Commission on Monday morning.
He is the first to do so among the candidates in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
July 8, Monday, was the first day for the submission of nominating petitions and candidacies.
“I am humbly thrilled to be the first candidate to file as an independent and who is beholden to no special interest other than our people’s interest,” Gonzales said.
“People over politics,” he added. “Solution…expect results, no more making noises, no more investigations. There is a point where that has to stop because our people are still suffering, some are still in tents, they don’t have water, they don’t have power. Let’s put aside politics and start identifying solutions, and let’s unleash actions,” Gonzales said.
He said he is “strategically poised and ready to seek effective solutions that directly meet the CNMI’s dire economic, social and infrastructural needs, and who will deploy required actions by competently securing valued diplomatic partnership and support across all aisles, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents in the U.S. Congress, in the White House and major federal departments.”
He said he possesses an “intimate knowledge of the most vital agreement between the CNMI and the U.S., our Covenant and our unrelenting geo-political asset.”
Gonzales said if elected he would “hit the ground running, not walking but running, by leveraging in order to steadfastly secure key policy and programmatic agreements through federal departments, the White House, and Congress, on top of quantifying the undeniably high exposure to our human lives and overall human costs being constantly at risk in the crossfire of military dominance, and hyper militarization between the U.S. and its enemies and its allies.”
He said the CNMI people must be visionaries.
“We must negotiate now and negotiate with the U.S. government [for] using our ocean water and land for its military defense posture in the Indo-Pacific region. We must negotiate, we must leverage…so we can put money to the [CNMI] reserves so that our future generations are taken care of, thus rescuing us from further irreparable economic collapse and social Armageddon,” Gonzales said.
“Who can best eloquently articulate and justify our struggles, our suffering, our extenuating circumstances, so geographically remote from the U.S. mainland and Washington, D.C., who experienced poverty and struggle during his childhood, with socio-economic hardships as a son of indigenous Chamorro mother and an immigrant construction laborer? Who can you trust as the most respected…who possesses the most sensible character, fortitude, moral compass, straight ethics and principles to represent you in the U.S. Congress?”
He added, “Give me the chance. It will be an honor to be your delegate to the U.S. Congress.”
The officers of the Committee to Elect Gonzales for Congress are Ambrosio Ogumoro, chairman; Ramon S. Basa and Vincent S. Pangelinan, vice chairs; David Burger CPA, treasurer; Gloria Rasiang and Virginia Reyes, co-secretaries.
Also running for the U.S. Congress are House Floor Leader Edwin Propst of the Democratic Party, former Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Republican Party, and Chamorro activist Liana S. Hofschneider, who is running as an independent.
