Gov. Benigno Fitial, who traveled to Washington D.C. with his wife, Josie, for the swearing in of CNMI Delegate Gregorio \u201cKilili\u201d Sablan, was unable to attend the ceremony. <\/p>\n
Charles Reyes, press secretary for the Governor\u2019s Office, said scheduling conflicts were the reason for Fitial\u2019s absence. <\/p>\n
Reyes said Fitial had planned to attend the official swearing in at 12pm, but the governor was told only Sablan\u2019s wife and children could attend that ceremony. <\/p>\n
A mock swearing in for photo opportunities was held later in the day but Reyes said the governor was also unable to attend this because he was meeting with congressional staffers. <\/p>\n
Sablan\u2019s staff members could not be reached in Washington D.C. to verify if the mock ceremony took place, but according to a press release, Sablan was sworn in at 2:20pm. <\/p>\n
Those attending included Sablan\u2019s family, first CNMI Resident Representative Edward DLG Pangelinan; Pete A. Tenorio, the most recent Resident Representative; Allen Stayman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; former CNMI assistant attorney general Jay Livingstone; Angie Borja; and Merced Aldan-Ada. <\/p>\n
It was also unclear when a picture, provided to the media, was taken that included the abovementioned people as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; Insular Affairs Subcommittee chair Donna Christensen (D-VI); Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans chair Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU); Rita Sablan, education commissioner for the CNMI Public School System; and Lucy Blanco-Maratita, PSS Board of Education chairwoman. <\/p>\n
Fitial was present at President Bush\u2019s 2pm announcement of the designation of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. Reyes said Fitial, after meeting with Bush during the announcement, saw Sablan. <\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s absence was not meant as anything against Sablan, Reyes said, and the two have been spending a lot of time together, including having dinner the night of the swearing-in ceremony. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been spending a lot of time together, but unfortunately, [Fitial] was not able to attend the official swearing in, which was limited, and he couldn\u2019t make the mock ceremony,\u201d Reyes said. <\/p>\n
Senate President Pete Reyes and House Speaker Arnold Palacios were also invited to the swearing in but were unable to make it, according to an earlier press release. <\/p>\n
Sablan said he does not choose who holds the office, but that it was important to invite all of them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this was historical enough, not because I\u2019m here, but because it\u2019s the first time for this office,\u201d Sablan added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Benigno Fitial, who traveled to Washington D.C. with his wife, Josie, for the swearing in of CNMI Delegate Gregorio \u201cKilili\u201d Sablan, was unable to attend the ceremony. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}