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Castro: Iakopo statement unfair and not true
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Posted on Jul 31 2020
House vice speaker Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) wants Office of Veteran Affairs executive officer Stanley T. Iakopo to retract his statement and apologize to the members of the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Affairs.
This is in reference to Iakopo’s “disappointment” that only a few showed up for a meeting that he had asked for to discuss the protection of the CNMI Veterans Cemetery that was being defiled by stray cows.
At the House session Wednesday, Federal and Foreign Affairs chair Rep. Luis John Castro (R-Saipan) said Iakopo’s statement is not true and unfair, adding that the meeting, which was informal and set at the last minute, was attended by four out of the seven members of the committee, including Castro himself and the House legal counsel.
“It was a last-minute meeting and I respected those who couldn’t make it. To say a few of us were present is something that I, as the chairman of the committee, do not appreciate, because it implicated that my members didn’t care deeply about the issues in the cemetery,” he said.
Castro wanted it to be clear that every member of the committee respects the work of agencies that help all military and veterans matters, and are ready to assist.
“I must reiterate that the members of FFA also hold the concerns and needs of our veterans just as high as other issues that come our way. To say that we as members of FFA do not care or support our veterans and their family is not true and unfair,” he said.
He said that they remain open to addressing the concern and that the action plans that were discussed with members at the meeting remain in place. “There was a request to reach out to the regulating agency that handles the issues that OVA has been dealing with with grazers. That plan is going to be carried out. There was a talk about meeting with [Department of Public Lands] and I’m going to keep that on the table for my members to discuss with both bodies if needed to be.”
“We are doing our best to…see how we can resolve the situation,” Castro added.
Rep. Ivan Blanco (R-Saipan), a member of the FFA committee, thanked Castro at the session, for “standing up for the members of the committee.”
