Inos breaks his silence

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos broke his silence yesterday on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s decision on Thursday to get rid of two Cabinet secretaries who are aligned with Inos’ political party, saying he’s “very disappointed it had to come this far.”

Fitial is the current chairman of the Republican Party, while Inos is now the titular head of the Covenant Party. The two are long-time friends.

Inos said that while there’s no constitutional or legal requirement that the governor consult him on every appointment and removal of Cabinet appointees, he had hoped that the governor would do so “in the spirit of working together,” “partnership” and “as courtesy.”

“Yes, I was very disappointed that it had to come this far,” Inos said in an interview yesterday afternoon.

It was Inos’ first time to publicly share his views on the governor’s decision to ask former Public Lands secretary Oscar M. Babauta and former Public Works secretary Martin Sablan late Thursday afternoon to turn in their resignation letters.

“No I wasn’t consulted,” Inos said when asked whether Fitial consulted him or talked to him before the governor sent out the letters to Babauta and Sablan.

The two turned in their resignation letters on Friday.

Babauta and Sablan did not follow the governor to the Republican Party and instead stayed with the Covenant Party with Inos. Babauta is the Covenant Party’s campaign manager and adviser, while Sablan is the second vice chairman.

Despite his misgivings, Inos said he will continue to do what he set out to do when he agreed to hold the position first as an appointee to fill a vacant position and as an elected official, and that is to serve the public.

He said he’s at least glad that political differences caused the removal of the two Cabinet secretaries, “and not because of any malfeasance, nonfeasance or misfeasance in the workplace.”

Inos said he learned only of the governor’s decision Thursday evening when he got a call from the affected Cabinet members.

He said in his view, Babauta and Sablan were doing an efficient job considering the “challenges that they all face on a day-to-day basis, and the need to provide necessary public services with very limited resources.”

Here are excerpts of the 18-minute interview with the lieutenant governor yesterday:

Media: Have you and the governor talked about the matter after the fact?

Inos: No. I guess the governor did not see the need to discuss it.

Media: Should other Cabinet secretaries prepare for the worst?

Inos: They’re in the same situation. They work for the governor, so the governor could remove them with or without cause, so.that’s just the way it is.

Media: Is there anything you could do as lieutenant governor to stop it?

Inos: Well I guess I could talk to the governor if I knew beforehand that that was his plan. But you know, let’s face it. The political situation is such that we’ve already seen that we all are taking different directions or opposite directions or not in the same direction. But you know, I guess that’s just the way it is in politics. We part ways and we do things in solitary way and so forth. We came in as Covenant [Party members] and we remain as Covenant. We did not decide to go anywhere. We just stayed.

Media: Don’t you think the decision to ask them to resign came at an inopportune time?

Inos: Again, number one is.no one is indispensable. It’s just the way things are. Employees come and go. We just have to find replacements, hopefully people who can do a better job than their predecessors so they could continue the work of government in providing public services.

Yeah it would have been nice to, for the sake of continuity, especially we’re in the middle of many things but again I felt bad. I sympathize with the two Cabinet members, especially Mr. Babauta who has been a supporter of the governor for the longest time and just because in my understanding, he has stayed with the party that the governor helped establish that now.his actions became a punishment for him. But this is the world of politics. I just hope that.I was going to say politics should not be part of consideration but I think it should be applied discreetly.

Media: Are you giving the governor the benefit of the doubt?

Inos: Actually, what’s happening right now is I’m giving the governor the benefit of the doubt.

Media: Maybe something happened that caused governor to ask them to resign?

Inos: We knew what happened.

Media: Do you have any regret running with the governor? Did you see this coming?

Inos: No, I didn’t see this coming. I didn’t see this coming. Regrets? I don’t want to go there. I’m here, I ran with him because I agreed to run with him so that we can serve the people better.

As bad as it has been with the economy and so forth.I think we’re still very lucky. Even [with] 64 hours. At least we’re getting something. It could have been worse.

Media: As lieutenant governor, you’re elected by the people. If you were in an appointed position, do you think he would have also asked you to resign?

Inos: If I would be asked to resign, I’d ask to be fired.

Media: The governor will not say it directly that politics has to do with it but are you sure these two did not make some mistakes?

Inos: No, it’s none of that. It’s because these two guys stayed within the [Covenant] party, okay, along with me who stayed in the party. Call that whatever you want to call it.

Media: Are you still hopeful that you and the governor will be able to patch things up?

Inos: I think the better question is, “Can we still serve the public together?”

Media: Can you?

Inos: I show up everyday.

Media: How are you coping with the situation when you and the governor are serving the public in separate ways?

Inos: Qualify that. Serving the public separately, but in parallel. I’m not doing anything different from what I set out to do when the governor and I ran for public office.

Let me tell you, despite what’s been happening, the governor and I don’t have any disagreement to say. Probably because we belong to two different political parties and that’s all but we don’t have any disagreements. Maybe I’m supporting an individual for public office that he’s not supporting, and so forth and vice versa but you know I’d like to view that as just a preference if you will.