Gov. Ralph DLG Torres insists he has nothing to do with the creation of a bill that intends to abolish the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and return it to its former status as a line department under the Office of the Governor. <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters after a proclamation signing at Marianas High School yesterday morning, Torres said he was not aware of the drafting of the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a very contentious bill; it\u2019s a political year\u2026For the record that bill was created without my knowledge\u2026It is a totally separate [creation] of the House,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
Despite that, Torres assured that his intention\u2014to provide quality healthcare for the Commonwealth community\u2014remains. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, my priority is to provide better healthcare, provide services, get equipment and supplies that the hospital needs,\u201d he said. \u201cI gave my word to support buying the equipment and we\u2019re negotiating already on buying them the [list of] equipment that [hospital administrator] Jesse Tudela gave me several months ago,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
In the event the bill to abolish CHCC goes through, Torres said he would ensure that any current progress is not disrupted. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no changes to the departments. Whatever you head, you head that department,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciate that all the staff in the hospital, the nurse and the doctors, are absolutely vital to our health here in the community and their work is appreciated\u2026 there is no firing or any threats to any of the other staff,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
According to Torres, there will be public hearing relating to the bill and he looks forward to what the community has to say about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they are going to be doing public hearings, as the author mentioned\u2026 I respect the intent of the bill and, again, is it the right time to do it? We\u2019ll see what will come of the public hearing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll go out there to the community and hear if they are happy with the services, are there more services that they want and that\u2019s what the bill is about? \u2026We\u2019ll listen to the community, then we can have a better judgment whether the effort to continue to abolish it [CHCC] and make it a line department, or if there are other issues that need to be addressed before abolishing the board, then we\u2019ll do that,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
He also assured that he has nothing against CHCC CEO Esther Mu\u00f1a and respects the CHCC board\u2019s decision on her role at the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no personal agendas with the CEO. I personally like her and I have nothing personally against her and I respect the board, as they are my board. Whatever the decision they make, I\u2019ll respect that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
A previous Saipan Tribune story reported that Torres had asked the CHCC board to terminate Mu\u00f1a. <\/p>\n
Torres said yesterday that his only issue with Mu\u00f1a was in regards to CHCC funding, but after saying his piece, he has since moved on. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing bad to say in terms of any personal issues. \u2026I said my piece and I moved forward,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres insists he has nothing to do with the creation of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[17555,666,65,19936],"class_list":["post-269127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-bautista","tag-chcc","tag-house","tag-janet-maratita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269127","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}