DLNR Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz said in an interview yesterday that he is very happy to have a “strong team” that will continue DFW’s programs.
Palacios was the division director for 12 years while Seman also held the position for five years before becoming DLNR secretary. Both are well known Republicans.
Seman, Dela Cruz said, will be DFW’s aquatic education specialist.
Marianne C. Teregeyo, who temporarily held the division director’s position, will be in the enforcement section again. She said they are glad Palacios and Seman are joining the team.
They are very excited to see more progress in working with their federal counterparts, she added.
“We have a strong team now because a lot of us have historical background with the grants,” Teregeyo said.
Palacios, Seman, Teregeyo were meeting with Dela Cruz and other DLNR officials yesterday.
Challenges
Palacios in a separate interview said it is going to be a challenge for him to bring the DFW program back on track but he is confident that with the help of very dedicated individuals, “we will bring the division back on its feet and get all the programs stabilized.”
The lack of a permanent director disrupted the progress of programs, he said.
Palacios said a lot of compliance reports are due, and some are a little bit overdue already.
There are the things that they have to address, Palacios said.
Compliance reports are required by grantor agencies and DFW is almost exclusively funded by federal grants, he said.
Teregeyo said there are several issues that they have to correct and they are glad to have Palacios on their team.
“We expect him to deliver because he was part of the history when most of the grants were negotiated,” she said.
Dela Cruz noted that Palacios started out as data manager back in early 1980s and eventually became the director. In 2001, Palacios was elected to the House of Representatives and became speaker in 2008. In 2009, he was the running mate of then-Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider, the Republican candidate for governor. They narrowly lost to the Covenant Party’s Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos. Fitial recently re-joined the GOP, whose officials include Palacios.
Dela Cruz said Palacios was involved in a lot of DFW programs including the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council in which he was one of the CNMI pioneers in the pelagic fishery program.
“He was very instrumental along that line,” Dela Cruz said.
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said DLNR has been diligently searching for a director for quite some time now.
He said it was important to find someone with adequate experience in the division to continue carrying out its goals and objectives.
Palacios, Demapan added, “was selected through a qualification process.”
