\n
![\"Philippine](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dinner-for-Eli-pix.jpg\")
<\/a>\nAlso present were members and leaders of the business sector like Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan and other community leaders like Saipan Mayor David Apatang. Different Filipino community groups were also present.<\/p>\n
Arago said he was humbled and honored by the presence of so many people who came.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy because this is really what we want to have, a very close partnership, friendship with the local community, and the government, for the protection and interest of our citizens,\u201d Arago said.<\/p>\n
Right choice<\/p>\n
For the many people who have known him, the Philippine government made the right choice in appointing Arago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found a partner, a very good partner in the person of Mr. Eli Arago and we look forward to a close working relationship with him,\u201d Auxilian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really believe he is the right choice by the Philippine government to represent all of the Filipinos in the CNMI community,\u201d Alex Sablan said.<\/p>\n
Tan Holdings president Jerry Tan, who has known Arago for 30 years, said that Arago is \u201cvery loyal to the Philippine government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from working pro bono as honorary consul, Arago is currently senior vice president and chief finance officer of Tan Holdings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could\u2019ve become a U.S. citizen a long, long time ago. But until today, he still chose to remain as a Philippine national,\u201d Tan said. \u201cI don\u2019t think NMI can choose a better person than Eli to be the honorary consul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filipinos comprise about a third of the population of the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very thankful that we now have an official honorary consul that will help our kababayans here on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Before it was hard because Filipinos had to call the United Filipino Organization and we had to contact Guam. At least now we have Eli,\u201d said Romeo Malasarte, president of United Filipino Organization, which is the umbrella group of Filipino organizations on Saipan.<\/p>\n
Home away from home<\/p>\n
In his speech, Arago said the CNMI has been his home away from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived and worked [on] Saipan nearly half of my life. For 30 years, the experience and friendship gained were opportunities that can only be felt or experienced when you are home. I am home. Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are the home for us and for my fellow kababayans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also sought the help of the community to be able to do his job well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here, along with the thousands of Filipino workers and their dependents, to reaffirm our long outstanding relations and friendship. I can only do much if I don\u2019t have the support of this community. I need all of you,\u201d Arago said.<\/p>\n
He then proposed a toast for a \u201cstronger partnership, for prosperity\u201d and for \u201cour enduring partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Arago, they are now setting up an office in Fina Sisu where they can operate and process consular dealings.<\/p>\n
Arago was appointed to the position by Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario effective since April 8 and he took oath of office before Consul General Marciano R. de Borja at the Philippine Consulate General in Guam last May 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A dinner reception was held in honor of Glicerio \u201cEli\u201d Arago at the Fiesta Resort…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":202898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,4946,4947,63],"class_list":["post-202897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-glicerio-eli-arago","tag-hibiscus-hall-wednesday","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202897","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}