Palacios: Our coalition is solid

Gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and his running mate, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, during a press conference at their headquarters yesterday. (KIMBERLY B. ESMORES)

Gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and his running mate, Mayor David M. Apatang, have officially met with their Democratic Party counterparts to make official their alliance for the upcoming runoff election.

According to Palacios, after meeting yesterday with Rep. Tina Sablan (D-Saipan) and her running mate, Leila Staffler (D-Saipan), he can confidently say that their coalition is a solid one.

“The coalition is solid. Tina made a commitment to support us and we want to thank them and their party for their support,” he said.

Palacios said the discussions they had circled around what kind of programs and policies they would like to see from him if he and Apatang win the runoff in the weeks to come.

“There are folks in their camps that want to be assured that we will look at and be open to implementing some of the programs and policies that’s in their platform. And that’s not a problem at all for us because, albeit our platforms are probably written differently, they’re basically the same and that’s good governance, efficient government, integrity and following the rule of law, so there’s not a lot of difference,” he said.

Some of the major issues discussed during the meeting, Palacios said, was health insurance, how government departments should be run, and the evaluation of economic issues like the fiscal integrity of the government, fiscal situation, how to move forward with the looming fiscal cliff post-ARPA, and CW-1 issues.

“Tina and Leila both have a very robust plan on these and we’re going to look at that. We talked about how we are going to right this government and how do we put the right people in the right positions to run the departments or agencies,” he said.

In addition to agreeing on policies that they should implement if they win the gubernatorial race, Palacios said discussions were also had on campaigning for the upcoming runoff.

“It’s no longer just going to be our campaign. We’re now including Tina and Leila to help us in that regard,” he said.

As for the results of the elections, Palacios said he extends his appreciation to all those who have supported him and Apatang.

“The runoff is going to be very challenging because it’s going to be in a little over two weeks, so we’re getting ready fairly fast here. But we’re very excited. …It’s a lot of hard work, but we’re good to go,” he said.

Apatang encourages everyone who supported AD in the last election to support them again in this upcoming runoff.

“I would like to encourage our people to take a look at where we stand and we continue to ask for your support for this upcoming runoff. We continue to stand with the platform of ‘rebuilding trust’ and that’s our common commitment to our people in the Commonwealth. So we’re humbly asking our citizens of the Commonwealth to please help us out. It is time to change this government. Give it back to you, guys,” he said.

As for his thoughts regarding the recent partnership between the independent parties, Apatang said he is glad the parties are joining together for the good of the Commonwealth.

“Their platforms are pretty much the same as ours. We want to pursue the same issue, which is to reset the government. We need to work together and tackle the things that have been happening here in our Commonwealth. And they’ve got some good ideas,” he said.