Former Palau President Tommy Remengesau was the special guest of the Palau Community Association’s 30th Palau Independence Day celebration at the Civic Center on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
FORMER Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr. was the special guest of the Palau Community Association on Saturday, Oct. 12, during its commemoration of Palau’s 30th Independence Day at the Civic Center.
Palau’s Independence Day is on Oct. 1, but the PCA’s celebration this year was held on the 12th to allow both Remengesau and current Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. to attend.
Whipps, who held a campaign rally on Saipan on Aug. 31, was not able to attend. He is seeking re-election against his brother-in-law, Remengesau, who served as Palau’s president from 2001 to 2009, and from 2013 to 2021.
At the celebration on Saturday, Remengesau spoke to the media about issues facing Palau.
He said he is looking to combat “brain drain.”
“One of the pressing issues now for Palau is the cost of living that’s driving a lot of our people, young people especially, to sell their homes, quit their jobs and relocate outside of Palau,” he said. “We’re actually calling our young men and women outside, even if you have working experience already, think of the possibility to return home.”
He said, “once a Palauan, always a Palauan for life,” and that the “door is always going to be open” for Palauans overseas to return home.
Remengesau arrived on Saipan on Oct. 10, and held a political rally on the 11th.
Aside from attending the PCA celebration, he was also on island to meet personally with Palauans who reside on Saipan.
“I do my campaign on a grassroot level, so I do plan to meet as many people as possible to relay the message,” he said.
He said although he has already served a total of four terms as president, he was called out of retirement by Palauans, who signed a petition requesting him to run for office again.
“It’s a call to duty,” he said. “By tradition you have to sacrifice your quality time with your family in order to do something for the good of the public. … I would have rather stayed retired, but as you know there are pressing issues for Palau whether it’s health, whether it’s education, whether it’s cost of living, whether it’s drugs — these are the issues of the day.”
According to a Pacific Island Times report, “vibrant” campaign events for Remengesau and Whipps have also occurred in Guam and in the Palauan communities on the U.S. West Coast and Texas.
Absentee ballots are expected to decide the closely contested presidential race.
