Castro to legislators: It is our duty to speak up

Instead of pointing fingers of blame, more dialogue and cooperation are needed to address the issued faced by the CNMI, according to Rep. Luis John DLG Castro at a House session last Friday.

With the coronavirus pandemic bringing to the forefront problems in the community, Castro called for more dialogue and cooperation between branches of the government. “This disaster has brought about a lot of problems we as leaders need to come together and square out,” Castro said. “If we’re going to get out of this, more dialogue is needed than finger pointing, more patience and compromise should be shown than scolding, and more collaboration should be exercised than dictation.”

Castro spoke up in response to comments from the Torres administration when some members of the House of Representatives spoke out about directives that they, as legislators, felt there is a need to talk about.

“As officials, it is our duty to speak up when something doesn’t feel right,” Castro staid. “When limiting operating hours for businesses was completely making the mandate of social distancing pointless, I and a few others spoke out.

“I didn’t do what I had to do because I wanted to vent out my personal frustrations but I felt I had to use my voice to speak out for those affected by this. Thankfully, things were changed, and for the most part our community has learned to operate within these directives,” he added.

The CNMI government, as with governments across the world, has been coming up with and recalibrating directives and measures as needed, to ensure that the virus would be contained.

Castro clarified that he has not criticized nor nitpicked how Gov. Ralph DLG Torres or the COVID-19 Task Force are addressing the pandemic, but is grateful for the steps they have taken to combat COVID-19. However, Castro objects to being “told to run things through certain individuals” before using his voice to inform and initiate dialogues with the community on pressing concerns, which he said is part of a job that he was elected for.

“There have been many instances where their actions have been done without direct dialogue with us or those that those decisions affected, even though that’s something we as branches are supposed to be doing,” Castro said. “If we are ever to see ourselves out of this situation, we must work collectively instead of individually to solve the dilemmas this pandemic have brought out.”