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Elephant in the living room
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Posted on Oct 30 2008
Does anyone see the elephant in the living room? No one is talking about it in public; no one is looking at it in public. At public forums, any negative comments against another candidate were off-limits, except that John Gonzales nevertheless made personal attacks against most of the other candidates. And there have been no debates between the candidates.
But I see from the comments being made on various blogs and online comments to opinions and stories in the Marianas Variety that at least some people claim to know of actions and behavior of some candidates that are corrupt, politically embarrassing or, at a minimum, controversial.
These candidates are running to be elected as delegate to the United States House of Representatives. There should be no secrets. The public should be told of any previous unethical and illegal conduct of the candidates—and the candidates themselves should have the opportunity to explain or dispute such allegations.
We’ve seen the information regarding Juan Lizama’s unethical and questionable conduct published in the newspaper. We’ve heard on the television of Felipe Atalig’s criminal conviction. We’ve read in the newspaper of Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s “past” and seen the Public Audit Report (Report No. AR-97-05) regarding payments made on contracts not performed by Gregorio C. Sablan. We’ve read various allegations against John Gonzales and Pete A. Tenorio and seen their questionable claims of accomplishments. We’ve see the false claims of Pete A. Tenorio that he secured certain funds to help our economy, such as increased Pell Grants and increased tax credits authorized by the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act. We’ve heard allegations of Luis Crisostomo’s money campaign.
It is unfortunate that the media has not investigated these allegations and made public the responses of the candidates and the results of such investigations, rather than having various allegations passing around secretly with or without evidence to support the allegations.
[B]Jeanne H. Rayphand[/B] [I]Chairman, Committee to Elect John H. Davis, Jr.[/I]
