{"id":213109,"date":"2015-10-26T06:06:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T20:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=213109"},"modified":"2015-10-26T06:06:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-25T20:06:22","slug":"tinian-leaders-honor-youths-advocacy-vs-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tinian-leaders-honor-youths-advocacy-vs-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinian leaders honor youth\u2019s advocacy vs \u2018ice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas and the Tinian leadership have recognized Tinian Elementary School student Byron Dela Cruz Jr., who on Oct. 15 and 18 came out on Facebook advocating for a stance against crystal meth abuse on Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, to all drug dealers and buyers out there, think about the lives you are destroying. Please let\u2019s fight the war against ICE. People who are selling or buying, you are destroying families, friends & children here on Tinian,\u201d said Byron in his Facebook post.
\n

\"From<\/a>
From left: Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas, Byron Dela Cruz Jr., Byron\u2019s mother Joleen Lizama, and Byron\u2019s brother Brian Dela Cruz. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nSan Nicolas was inspired by Dela Cruz\u2019s courage to come out and advocate against the devastating drug problem on the island.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015, the mayor called for a meeting with Tinian Legislative Delegation chair Sen. Francisco M. Borja, Tinian Municipal Council chair Raynaldo Cing, Dela Cruz, his brother and guardians, as well as the Tinian heads of DPS, Customs, Tinian Health Center, and the counselors from the Public School System.<\/p>\n

The meeting was prompted by a request from Dela Cruz to meet the mayor so he can voice his concern and get assistance in organizing a rally against the drug \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank Byron for having the courage to speak out about the drug problem on Tinian. You have inspired me to work with you and everyone here to address the war on \u2018ice.\u2019 It takes a lot of courage to do what you did as many sometimes are afraid to stand up and say what you said. I pledge my support and assure you that DPS, Customs, your counselors, and everyone here will support you,\u201d said San Nicolas.<\/p>\n

The chairs of the Tinian Legislative Delegation and the Tinian Municipal Council, as well as everyone present at the meeting, echoed the expression of support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be praying for all of you using drugs and hope you do something better in life,\u201d said Dela Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village to raise a child, and Byron is an example of that. Let us all work together to make Tinian a safer and drug free community. He has inspired me and all of us. Now we will continue the advocacy and fight the war on ICE,\u201d said San Nicolas. (PR)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas and the Tinian leadership have recognized Tinian Elementary School student…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":213110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6046,1339,2122,1957],"class_list":["post-213109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ice","tag-san-nicolas","tag-tinian-legislative-delegation","tag-tinian-municipal-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213109","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}