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Mayor RB Camacho pushes for sustainability within
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Posted on Jan 11 2023
Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho makes his remarks during his inauguration ceremony last Monday at the Saipan Mayor’s Office parking lot. (LEIGH GASES)
With Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho now taking the reins of the municipality of Saipan, he has set a lot of plans for his term, with a call for self-sustainability to drive the response to the community’s needs.
In his inauguration day remarks last Monday, Camacho pointed out that, with the tourism industry not being where it once was pre-pandemic, and with the inflation of goods in the past year, “we should start looking within our island for sustainability.”
He said that fishing and farming are local industries that Saipan should continue to tap into for resources. “What industry do we have here? What if we, the community, the municipality of this island, create a local industry: the product from the ocean and the product from the land, so we can have sustainability and food security? We have to be mindful of this. Food security is so important.”
Camacho, who is a farmer and was the president of the Sabalu Farmer’s Market, recalled the late Tony Pellegrino, who was then the vice president of the Sabalu Market, and had said that “we are stepping on the diamond and that we are not making use of that diamond. What is that diamond? The soil. We have to start to cultivate the soil. …Let’s have this sustainability.”
Also, according to Camacho’s inauguration booklet, he will promote self-sustaining and health-conscious practices through community gardening.
Additionally, Camacho said that Saipan can’t rely on tourism alone. “For tourism… Japan and Korea [are] still a question mark on tourists coming here.”
In his opinion, it might take another three or five years before the CNMI can start seeing an increase in the number of tourists coming to the CNMI once again, so he said, “We need to work together,” but that once they do come in, “Let’s introduce ourselves—who we are and what we are. Let’s give them what is locally grown,” Camacho said.
He also noted that “The CNMI government is not generating [money]. The other industry, the casino, is not moving. The casino before, when it was first established, was on its feet. Up and running. Now, the casino is on its knees—it can’t move.”
