Ms. Liberation candidates: US citizens or not?

Should this year’s Ms. CNMI Liberation candidates be U.S. citizens or should nonresidents also be allowed to join in?

This question was raised during the Liberation Day celebration committee meeting yesterday morning, with the selection of the candidates based on their ethnicity and citizenship the primary concern.

Ruth Coleman, a committee member, said that the candidates should only be U.S. citizens since they will observe a celebration that represents the United States and the CNMI.

But Queens Committee chair Rose Ada-Hocog said that the application contract and guidelines do not indicate any citizenship requirement. The candidates are determined and nominated by non-profit organizations. Hocog said a group could send a possible candidate of their choice to represent their organization.

Laila Younis-Boyer, organizing committee public relations head, said that opening the “Queen” to non-U.S. citizens this year would encourage more funds to be raised during the event. Almost everyone in the committee agreed that the more candidates, the merrier, and more funds would be donated to charities. A final decision on the matter will be made today.

Eloy Inos, executive committee chair, asked as to what would happen if the Ms. CNMI Liberation title is won by a nonresident worker who suddenly leaves the islands. What would happen to her obligations? Hocog said that the next in line, which is the runners-up, would take over.

The executive committee also tackled the age bracket requirement for those who would join the pageant. Last year the minimum and maximum age requirement was 15 to 21 years old. For this year, they decided to increase the minimum age requirement to 16.

Hocog said she would be meeting with the “Queens” committee today to finalize the application requirement for this year’s Ms. CNMI Liberation. The reigning queen will represent the CNMI in the Liberation Day celebration on Guam.

The meeting will also finalize the screening process, ticket distribution, and proceeds percentage to the candidates and to the committee. Ms. CNMI Liberation coronation night is on July 2.

Inos promised the public that the committee would do its best to give the public the best celebration ever.

Ms. CNMI Liberation would be one of the highlights of the upcoming Liberation Day celebration, which would begin on June 2 and end with a huge festival on July 4.

This year’s celebration will have a theme “Celebrating Liberty, Peace, and Freedom, Then, Now and Always.”