[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 152 (Tuesday, October 1, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E997-E998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. CARLOS CAMACHO

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 1, 2024

  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Carlos Sablan 
Camacho, the first Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands and a man 
who has devoted his life to the health and welfare of our island 
community.
  Dr. Camacho was born to Luis Taimanao Camacho and Ramona Sablan 
Camacho on November 4, 1937, on the island of Saipan, during the 
Japanese administration.
  He witnessed as a child the effects of World War II and particularly 
the Battle of Saipan in 1944, in which one in ten Mariana islanders 
lost their life.
  For a person in our community, Carlos Camacho had unusual access to 
education during his formative years. He completed nine years of 
schooling in the Marianas, then in 1954 left for the island of Chuuk, 
where he attended the Pacific Island Central School and studied basic 
medicine and dentistry.
  Two years later, he was recruited to attend the Fiji School of 
Medicine. There he received advanced medical training and after six 
years received a degree to practice medicine. He returned home to the 
Marianas and went to work at the Dr. Torres Hospital.
  He returned to learning in 1971, when he began work on an advanced 
degree in Public Health at the University of Hawaii--Manoa. Signaling 
his accomplishment, Dr. Camacho was chosen to represent the School of 
Public Health and the Pacific Islands at the Colorado Medical Center 
Seminar in 1972. Upon completion of his studies, he returned from 
Hawaii and took up work on Saipan as the Chief Medical Officer of the 
public Health Service.
  It was then that Dr. Camacho turned his attention to governance. In 
1976, he was elected to the Congress of Micronesia. He became President 
of the Saipan Democratic Party. After the people of the Marianas voted 
to join the United States as a self-governing Commonwealth, Dr. Camacho 
was appointed to the convention that drafted the Constitution under 
which we now live.
  When that Constitution first became effective in 1977, Dr. Camacho 
was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands and took office on January 9, 1978.
  During his term as governor, Dr. Camacho fought against the 
implementation of gambling in our islands, was a leading voice 
protesting nuclear waste dumping in the Pacific, and managed the 
transition from governance by the United Nations Trust Territory of the 
Pacific Islands to self-government by the people of the Marianas.
  He was a strong advocate for our newly formed Commonwealth government 
throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific. In the capitol of the Nation 
we chose to join, he forged a special working relationship with U.S. 
Congressman Phillip Burton, who had been instrumental behind the scenes 
in negotiating the Marianas Covenant of Political Union with the United 
States and who won approval for the Covenant in just three days' time 
here in the House of Representatives.

[[Page E998]]

  After serving one term as governor, Dr. Camacho retired from public 
service in 1981 and went into private business.
  Dr. Camacho is married to Lourdes Winefreda Ito Pangelinan. They 
share seven children: Carla, Mona Lynn, Carlos Patrick, Kevin Frank, 
Francine, Jiana, and Franklin Luis; four grandchildren: Carlos Joe, 
Liana Margaret, Lucas Patrick, and Leia Rose.
  His own early life experiences as a colonial subject of the Japanese 
empire and witness to the ravages of war greatly shaped Dr. Camacho's 
commitment to public service. His example of learning and service 
inspires us today and is a legacy he leaves for future generations in 
the Northern Mariana Islands and beyond.

                          ____________________