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Inos, Torres cancel trip to Tinian inauguration
Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres cancelled their trip yesterday to Tinian to attend the inauguration of Tinian Mayor J.P. San Nicolas due to bad weather. Acting press secretary Ivan A. Blanco said strong winds brought about by a tropical storm that was passing Yap forced the Governor’s Office and the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to err on the side of caution and cancel Inos and Torres’ scheduled flights to the island.
“I want to express the governor’ and lieutenant governor’s regrets for not being able to be with the people of Tinian and the mayor for not being able to join his inauguration. But our staff wants to take precautions. We made preparations to fly to Tinian at 7am and join them at church and after Mass go the inauguration festivities and hear their remarks. But, of course, these strong winds that have been happening [prevented that plan],” he said.
Blanco said the decision to cancel the trip came at around 8pm to 9pm Tuesday night. He said they even called the CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management to check with them to see if it was all right to fly.
“They told us the winds are going to shift sideways. If the plane was a twin turboprop we’d be more comfortable but they’ll be using smaller planes that are single propeller. [So] we cancelled. We really regret it because the governor was really excited to be going there.”
He added that they informed San Nicolas beforehand that they couldn’t make the trip to Tinian.
“I sent JP San Nicolas an email that we regretfully couldn’t go down because of the strong winds and we have to take precautionary measures.”
Blanco said the governor and lieutenant governor have yet to receive an invitation to attend this weekend’s inauguration of Rota Mayor Ephraim Atalig.
The mayors of Tinian, Rota, and Northern Islands took their oaths of office last Monday at the Governor’s Office. The events happening on their respective islands are for ceremonial purposes so the people of the Tinian and Rota can partake of the festivities.
