{"id":404660,"date":"2024-01-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=404660"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Decision-on-Bermudes-status-was-made-after-extensive-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Decision-on-Bermudes-status-was-made-after-extensive-consideration\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Decision on Bermudes&#8217; status was made after extensive consideration&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said yesterday that his request on Friday for Clement Bermudes to resign as Department of Public Safety commissioner was done after extensive and careful consideration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not make this decision lightly,\u201d said Palacios in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>He said he appreciates Bermudes\u2019 service to DPS and community over the past year and recognizes that he inherited tremendous challenges in taking over DPS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs this is a personnel matter, I will not comment further,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n<p>Bermudes resigned from his post Friday afternoon shortly after Palacios instructed him to do so. He said in a comment that he personally did not want to resign.<\/p>\n<p>The CNMI Senate unanimously confirmed Bermudes\u2019 appointment in April 2023. Bermudes is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. Before being appointed DPS commissioner, he had just been promoted dean of the Northern Marianas College Academic Program and Services. He used to chair NMC\u2019s Criminal Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>Last Dec. 23, Palacios wrote Bermudes to express concern over the commissioner\u2019s \u201cinconsistency in following [Palacios\u2019] instructions\u201d over an issue involving Sgt. Peter Camacho. Palacios had instructed Bermudes to reassign Camacho to the Marianas Regional Fusion Center at the CNMI Department of Homeland Security, but Bermudes did not do that.<\/p>\n<p>Palacios said yesterday that he has enlisted the assistance of retired police official Anthony Macaranas, whom he described as a \u201chighly respected individual with an extensive law enforcement background,\u201d to serve as acting commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>He said Macaranas will help provide stability and direction and take over management responsibilities at DPS while the administration searches for a new and permanent commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>The governor said Macaranas will be supported by other law enforcement agency leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Kaye Inos, who is the DPS director of Administrative Service, became the acting DPS commissioner during the immediate transition period. Palacios said Inos will now return to her regular duties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ask for the community\u2019s patience and prayers as we navigate the months ahead and steer a new course for one of our government\u2019s most critical departments,\u201d Palacios said.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/d4f7b8d2c06f9b4794e9a653dc00606f.png\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Clement Bermudes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said yesterday that his request on Friday for Clement Bermudes to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404660","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\/404660","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=404660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}