{"id":238439,"date":"2016-10-14T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=238439"},"modified":"2016-10-14T06:00:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T20:00:50","slug":"rota-forming-task-force-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/rota-forming-task-force-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Rota forming task force against \u2018ice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROTA<\/strong>\u2014Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig believes the methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d problem on the island is not alarming, but as a preventive move they are forming an anti-drug task force. \u201cI haven\u2019t heard anything that will alarm me,\u201d said Atalig when asked during an interview if there is an \u201cice\u201d problem on Rota. <\/p>\n

The mayor disclosed that he just had a meeting with secretaries and local resident directors, in which he recommended an anti-drug task force on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heading in that direction and I believe beginning of this month we are going to get this thing in full swing,\u201d Atalig said. \u201cThe idea here is let\u2019s be in a preventive mood rather than on a protective mood.\u201d <\/p>\n

On crimes, Atalig said they really don\u2019t have any crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is any crime, basically it\u2019s internal\u2026within the family,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The mayor said they implement a lot of programs for their youths.<\/p>\n

He cited that recently they had some basketball team from Saipan play with their island\u2019s basketball players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about that is bringing them to our island of Rota, so that our players in Rota can feel the increased competitiveness of other teams aside from themselves,\u201d Atalig said. <\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune conducted last week random interviews with residents and foreign workers on Rota and they all agreed that there is no crime against property or persons and that they just leave their cars open wherever they go. <\/p>\n

In a separate interview, Rota Municipal Council chair George Ogo Hocog said there may be an \u201cice\u201d problem on the island but it\u2019s not as bad as other places. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really bad. But if we don\u2019t take care of it, its going to increase,\u201d Hocog said. \u201cI heard some people here are using \u2018ice\u2019 but I never see them using, but I can feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocog said what they are trying to do is form a task force against drugs and \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there is a need to increase their K9 activity. <\/p>\n

Hocog said right now, the island does not have a dog checking for illegal drugs, mostly coming from Saipan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROTA\u2014Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig believes the methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d problem on the island is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[310,410,13736,290],"class_list":["post-238439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-basketball","tag-drugs","tag-george-ogo-hocog","tag-rota-municipal-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238439","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}