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Speaker: Special ethics committee to look into Palacios matter
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Posted on Oct 26 2011
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter
Reporter
House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) will appoint a seven-member Special Committee on Ethics that will look into reports of drug-related issues involving Rep. Raymond D. Palacios (Cov-Saipan) and come up with recommendations if warranted.
Cabrera said he is appointing House Floor Leader George Camacho (Ind-Saipan) as chair of the Special Committee on Ethics today.
“As speaker, I can’t just turn my back on this. I believe it is the right thing for me to do, to appoint a Special Committee on Ethics that will look into the reports about Congressman Palacios. We would like clarification on this. We would like to get to the bottom of this,” Cabrera said in a phone interview yesterday.
Camacho, in a separate interview, said he is accepting the appointment as committee chair.
Palacios, when asked again yesterday, said he does not want to further comment on the issue at this time.
Palacios belied on Monday information that he was arrested by the FBI or any other authorities in connection with “ice.” He also said he is not selling “ice,” amid information to the contrary that circulated in the community Monday afternoon.
But Palacios, chairman of the House Committee on Education, also said he might have used drugs in the past, and that there were times in the past when he would help a family member get drugs, something that he said he shouldn’t have done.
The House speaker said he was surprised to read Palacios’ comments.
“As an elected official, I was surprised to read what he said if he really said that. I share the pain of the family reading what he said in the news. We want to clarify things, and that is why I’m appointing a special committee to look into this,” the speaker said.
The speaker said he asked Palacios on Monday about the information that was circulating in the community about his alleged arrest, but he said that Palacios told him those were untrue. Palacios was at the Legislature yesterday.
