Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) stepped down yesterday as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, citing his \u201cfrustration\u201d and \u201cdisappointment\u201d with some members of the House leadership who he said have been uncooperative and not been upfront with their concerns on bills until they are taken up on the floor.<\/p>\n
But in his brief letter to Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) yesterday, Palacios didn\u2019t cite a reason for his decision to step down \u201ceffective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am frustrated and disappointed with some members of the House leadership. They lack courtesy and lack respect for their fellow members. They didn\u2019t even have the guts to air their concerns on bills until that bill is taken up on the floor or until something\u2019s already decided,\u201d Palacios told Saipan Tribune in an interview at his office.<\/p>\n
As of yesterday, Palacios said he has yet to decide whether he will remain a member of the committee he chaired for eight months.<\/p>\n
He said the frustration is not with the people he serves, but the people he works with at the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Former speaker and now Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) appointed Palacios as committee chairman on Oct. 18, 2010, replacing Rep. Teresita Santos (Ind-Rota). Tenorio removed Santos from the post, saying the latter had been voting along with the minority and not the majority.<\/p>\n
In accepting the post, Palacios had said he would remain as a Republican. While he\u2019s a Republican, he\u2019s been voting along with the majority, mostly from the Covenant Party.<\/p>\n
After some eight months as committee chair, Palacios said, \u201cIt\u2019s not worth the headache anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while he could understand the minority members\u2019 actions right after he chose to vote for Cabrera instead of minority leader Diego Benavente (R-Saipan) as new speaker to replace Tenorio in January, he could not understand some majority members\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
Palacios cited some majority members\u2019 \u201cno\u201d vote last Friday on a committee report recommending passage of a substitute Senate legislative initiative extending private land leases from 55 years to 99 years. <\/p>\n
He also cited a committee report on a bill amending the anti-littering law to lower the steep penalty fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome members of the leadership don\u2019t even have the guts to tell me their concerns about certain bills and even during the session; they don\u2019t say anything. Some committee members don\u2019t even attend the committee meetings and do not review the bills that were assigned to the committee. They just sat on these bills and do not even voice their concerns on it until it\u2019s already on the floor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said this has been going on for months, and he has had enough of his colleagues\u2019 seeming lack of courtesy and disrespect.<\/p>\n
The speaker could not be reached for comment, but the House leadership is set to have a meeting this afternoon to tackle Palacios\u2019 resignation. <\/p>\n
The vice chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Raymond Palacios (Cov-Saipan), said if he were the chairman, he would also be disappointed and upset with members of the leadership who have been rejecting bills that have been recommended for passage.<\/p>\n
Raymond Palacios said he has yet to hear from the speaker whether he will be named acting chairman of the committee until a new chairman is appointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to the speaker,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Raymond Palacios is among those who have been cooperating and upfront with Joseph Palacios on bills assigned to their committees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand he\u2019s upset with some members of the leadership. But I do work with him, and I tell him what my concerns are,\u201d Raymond Palacios said.<\/p>\n
Joseph Palacios also cited one instance when a House leadership member \u201cdidn\u2019t have the guts to tell straight to Rep. Froilan [Tenorio] that his bill was already filed\u201d when they\u2019re both members of the majority.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery bill that will be introduced in the House, I will look into it, the merits of the bill, and not who introduced it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One House member said Joseph Palacios\u2019 resignation as chairman is an \u201ceye opener\u201d among members of the leadership, and may result in another shakeup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) stepped down yesterday as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, citing his \u201cfrustration\u201d and \u201cdisappointment\u201d with some members of the House leadership who he said have been uncooperative and not been upfront with their concerns on bills until they are taken up on the floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}