{"id":176278,"date":"2014-08-13T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T18:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=176278"},"modified":"2014-08-13T04:00:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T18:00:26","slug":"inos-torres-discuss-major-issues-young-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/inos-torres-discuss-major-issues-young-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Inos and Torres discuss major issues with young voters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Young<\/a>
Young members of MILE CNMI hold a freewheeling discussion with Gov. Eloy Inos and Sen. Ralph Torres at their campaign office in Gualo Rai yesterday evening. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Eloy Inos and Sen. Ralph Torres met with MILE CNMI, a group of young voters dedicated to voter awareness, at their campaign office in Gualo Rai yesterday evening.<\/p>\n

The Inos-Torres meeting was the first of several meetings the youth group has scheduled with this year\u2019s gubernatorial candidates.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, Inos and Torres spoke briefly about themselves, their platform, and their views on several CNMI issues.<\/p>\n

Later, a Q&A session led discussion to an array of topics that included contract worker status, the integrated casino resort to be developed on Saipan, public transit, utility prices, and alternative energy.<\/p>\n

Julius Reyes, a member of the group, asked Inos and Torres about the impact and sustainability of the casino resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wondering how this will all be controlled,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of buildings. I\u2019m not sure if we should keep building, especially on the coast side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inos clarified that the mandated 2,000 new rooms under the negotiated casino deal do not have to be built in one location.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a known situation that you can\u2019t find the real estate here in one central place where you can build 2,000 rooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Working with various permitting agencies, the rooms would essentially have to be spread around the island, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d Inos said, agreeing with Reyes\u2019 concern about infrastructure impact. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any available site that would accommodate 2,000 rooms with all the integrated amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inos and Torres both expressed appreciation for the contributions of contract workers throughout the CNMI\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these folks are responsible for our economy, our growth. They\u2019re responsible for the many good things [in the CNMI]. We couldn\u2019t have done it by just ourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked about what he and Torres can do about the status of contract workers if elected, Inos clarified that they do not much have authority on policy decisions, as these are made at the discretion of the secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.<\/p>\n

However, he says he has been working with Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) in putting pressure on federal authorities, as he believes contract workers play a huge role in keeping the economy going.<\/p>\n

He cited this year\u2019s good news of the CW program\u2019s extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put enough pressure on [DOL] to exercise its discretion to extend that looming deadline [for another] five years,\u201d Inos said.<\/p>\n

He said he would continue to work with Sablan, saying they both have had discussions to approach Congress and ask for a \u201cspecial visa\u201d especially fitted for the CNMI, which will allow for continuity and sustainability in the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working in parallel with Congressman Kilili, because\u2026the economy needs the service, and we are not prepared. We don\u2019t have the U.S eligible workers to do the work that is currently performed by contract workers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Torres said that in his time in the Senate he has supported resolutions to help nonresident workers in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018us,\u2019 it\u2019s \u2018we,\u2019\u201d Torres stressed. \u201cWe\u2019re all here for the same reason. You call this home, I call this home, there\u2019s no difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel Ichihara, MILE CNMI\u2019s chairman, spoke highly of the meeting and said he was surprised and appreciative of how Inos thoroughly answered their questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful that he is also helping CW workers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also told the governor about how he has two U.S.-born friends who have had to move to the Philippines because they\u2019re parents could no longer stay on island.<\/p>\n

When asked, Ichihara said he has not decided on who he will vote for but is excited to meet with the other gubernatorial candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Eloy Inos and Sen. Ralph Torres met with MILE CNMI, a group of young…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":176305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[256,26,118,197],"class_list":["post-176278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-cnmi","tag-cw","tag-gualo-rai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176278","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}