Maratita sworn in as Rota MVA board member

After the seat being empty for several months, Dwayne Lizama Maratita was sworn in as Marianas Visitors Authority board member representing Rota last Friday at the MVA office in Garapan.

Maratita expressed his excitement in joining MVA and he hopes he can help bring more tourists to his home island.

Maratita was born and raised on Rota with a background as an officer with the Transportation Security Administration. He also worked for Bank of Guam and Bank of Saipan before getting into government service in 2003 as a Student Support Services coordinator with the Rota campus of Northern Marianas College.

Following his stint at NMC, Maratita became a resident department head for the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs and worked with former Rota mayor Efraim Atalig as a public relations officer.

Maratita also gained experience as a grant writer for the Office of Grants Management under the Office of the Governor.

Now that he’s appointed to the MVA board, Maratita shared he is happy to put his considerable experience in helping bring more tourists to his home island of Rota and the rest of the CNMI.

“I’m so glad to be here, and I’m honored. I will do everything in my power and my best ability to serve the community and serve the people.”

Maratita also shared recent developments on Rota to improve it as a tourist destination, including the acquisition of several statues.

“We already have the sculptures on Saipan and so we’re setting up shipping them over to Rota. We’re looking at probably installation by mid-December or early January. That’s something new for our tourist sites back home. There are six wildlife and one 14-foot Chamorro chief statue that we’re going to be placing. We’re going to be placing the statues at the ancient latte quarry… That’s a new attraction for Rota and I’m absolutely guaranteeing that that’s going to enhance our tourism activities on Rota.”

He said tourism has just been hard on Rota lately, but is optimistic that one step at a time, he hopes to see it thriving once again.

“When I was growing up you can’t even enter mom and pop stores on Rota because there’s so much tourists. That’s what I want to bring back. Slowly but surely, maybe not at that volume, but of course, with all the concerted effort, like I said, with the assistance of the Office of Governor. We’re so grateful from the beginning, and the governor has always been assisting us as well as the lieutenant governor. That’s one thing, is to put a plan in place, a strategic plan, so that we can be able to sustain the tourism industry on Rota and the entire region.”

Maratita said he is very optimistic about the future of the tourism industry on Rota despite the CNMI’s current economic crisis.

“I’m sure that alongside with the Office of Governor, like I said, with Marianas Visitors Authority, we will achieve what is necessary just to maintain it. We’re not looking at a million tourists coming in in the next couple of years or so, but gradually, it’s a process. And what it takes is just coming together and really devising a plan and sticking to the plan, and eventually everything will work. I always have been a believer in sustainability. As a grant writer, it’s important that at any time that you submit a proposal, you emphasize it, you reiterate it’s a sustainable plan. So that’s important to me. All CNMI residents should be grateful for having an awesome team here at MVA. Like I said, I’m grateful that I was given this opportunity.”

MVA managing director Chris Concepcion shared Maratita’s enthusiasm about the future of the CNMI’s tourism industry.

“We’re very excited. Rota is going to be represented on our board, finally. It’s been vacant since Agida T. Quitugua Manglona resigned earlier this year. So, we’re excited to have him on board. He will bring his experiences with him and he’s going to be able to work with us to bring in more tourists to Rota.”

MVA board chair Gloria Cavanaugh echoed the same sentiment.

“It’s been a while, I think since March, when Rota was represented on the board of directors. We’re very happy that director Maratita was finally confirmed and then comes on board. I mean, just from today alone, he seems to be very eager to help his community on Rota through the MVA. We’re very excited about him being part of it and we’re hoping that he’ll be able to immerse himself into what we do and what we’re all about.”