Self-appointed inspectors

At Issue: Recent report of fake health inspectors doing rounds in restaurants throughout the island.

Our View: Report them immediately especially when they insist that restaurant owners pay up front.

It isn’t surprising that some people have the nerves to make money by posing as fake health inspectors. It must be a new branch in the art of deception by the lazy bunch who refuse to earn their stripes or dues through hard work.

Perhaps they must have been studying restaurant owners, foreigners who hardly speak English who have the greatest respect for authority, and have become victims of fake health enforcement people.

The secretary of health has announced that anyone caught posing as a fake health inspector would be dealt the full extent of the law. It is a firm position that the fake bunch must come to understand forthwith or they’d end up doing the tango at a strange dance floor.

In the first place, health regulations on food handling are designed to protect the health of the general public. It is appalling that fake health inspectors never even thought for a moment that one of their children could very well be the victim of food poisoning because they (fake health inspectors) have posed illegally for the sake of collecting money from innocent and gullible restaurant owners.

Furthermore, sanitation workers have gone through serious training to ensure that venues where food preparation takes place meet certain standards. Without such training, one is basically lost on what exactly to look for when inspecting kitchen facilities in private restaurants.

It’s the nerve to pose as fake health inspectors that we find very unsettling. It is for this reason that we encourage the entire community to ask for appropriate credentials when someone presents himself or herself as a law enforcement officer from a certain government agency.

We have seen the huge black eye that the CNMI gets from such experiences and it is our individual and collective responsibility to ensure that we don’t repeat history! Remember recent cases where certain people have impersonated law enforcement officers to impress others or collect illegally from innocent victims? This non-sense must stop right here and now!

If you can’t think of the number to call when faced with suspicious situation, dial 911 for assistance. Let legal authority enforce health and other regulations here. Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!