{"id":245005,"date":"2017-01-24T06:06:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=245005"},"modified":"2017-01-24T06:06:34","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T20:06:34","slug":"were-here-on-a-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/were-here-on-a-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re here on a mission\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-245005 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/were-here-on-a-mission\/aapi-pix1\/'>AAPI-pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-245018'>\n\t\t\t\tGov. Ralph DLG Torres addresses the crowd at the Asian American Pacific Islander Gala at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Eve Thursday, Jan. 19.\u00a0 Torres is joined on stage by his wife Diann Torres and Guam Gov. Eddie B. Calvo and his wife Christine Lujan Sonido.\u00a0 About 15 to 20 CNMI residents attended the gala.  (JILLIAN ANGELINE)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/were-here-on-a-mission\/aapi-pix2\/'>AAPI-pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-245019'>\n\t\t\t\tCNMI officials and attendees at the Asian American Pacific Islander Gala take a moment from the festivities to pose for the cameras.\u00a0 About 15-20 CNMI residents attended the gala; about 15-20 Guam residents joined the festivities.\u00a0 (JILLIAN ANGELINE)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/were-here-on-a-mission\/aapi-pix3\/'>AAPI-pix3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-245020'>\n\t\t\t\tPresident Donald J. Trump is sworn into office on Inauguration Day Friday, Jan.  20 in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. in front of thousands of people, including top officials.\u00a0 Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and other CNMI officials were among the throngs of people in attendance at the ceremony.\u00a0 (JILLIAN ANGELINE)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Gov. Ralph DLG Torres led a coterie of CNMI and Guam officials at the Mayflower Hotel here on the eve of the presidential inauguration for the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders-hosted 58th Presidential Inauguration Gala.<\/p>\n<p>One official told Saipan Tribune there were about 15 to 20 members of the CNMI and 15 to 20 members from Guam attending the Thursday evening gala and show their support for newly sworn in President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>While the gala included officials from around the nation and the world, some young adults also joined in the festivities.  <\/p>\n<p>Emily Jones, a former Marianas High School student and now a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., said: \u201cI\u2019m so excited to be here. I think it\u2019s a great, incredible experience, definitely not something that people I know my age are able to experience this, so I think it\u2019s just truly amazing to be here with all these incredible people.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Jones, who said Torres personally invited her to the gala, especially enjoyed seeing the cultural attire of some guests.  Some participants showed up in Pacific Island dresses while some women were seen in Taiwanese dance dresses.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s pre-inaugural ball was the organization\u2019s first major activity in more than a decade.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe organization has been around for many, many years.  It\u2019s been dormant for about a decade.  Obviously, we haven\u2019t had a Republican president in a while,\u201d Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo told Saipan Tribune last week.  <\/p>\n<p>Calvo and Torres co-chair the Asian American Pacific Islander organization and are the first Pacific islanders to do so.  <\/p>\n<p>CNMI Republican Party president James Ada called the Torres and Calvos\u2019 appointment to the AAPI organization \u201chistory in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In planning for the gala itself, Ada said, \u201cIt took months and, you know, my hats off to the AAPI members, especially the people who went out to facilitate this event for this evening.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But the gala and the experience represented more than just a celebration.  CNMI GOP vice chair Vincent Torres told Saipan Tribune, \u201cWe\u2019re here on a mission to establish a positive relationship between the CNMI, the [Republican National Committee] and the Executive Branch and the Legislature.  So the whole time that we\u2019re here, we\u2019ve been attending every single meeting with the RNC so that we get to know all of those people, the chairmen and new ones that got elected.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>He told Saipan Tribune it\u2019s not only about hoping to have a greater voice in the new administration\u2014he said they are making it happen now.  \u201cGov. Torres had a series of meetings with key GOP in the days before the inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Calvo echoed the importance of teamwork. He said he anticipates meeting with the Republican leadership, especially as the National Governor\u2019s Association will be meeting next month. He also explained it will be important for Guam and the CNMI to work collaboratively on issues involving healthcare, security, immigration and the environment in the new administration.<\/p>\n<p>The crowded AAPI gala signaled an uptick in Asian American and Pacific Islander participation in the Republican Party. \u201cWhen you see the results of the election, where Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders made the biggest swing, it was a double-digit swing of about 11 percent from what was the results of 2012.  So we\u2019re energized, this organization now is, as you can see, vibrant.   We intend to use this as a springboard for moving forward,\u201d said Calvo.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the resurgence of the AAPI participation that CNMI\u2019s Alex Sablan said will help to improve participation and representation by Asian American and Pacific Islanders in each state and territory in the nation.  Sablan was part of the CNMI delegation at the gala and attended the Trump\u2019s inauguration on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Torres told Saipan Tribune he began supporting President Trump after he received a personal phone call during the campaign last year.  \u201cIt was the only candidate that has reached out at that level and to take our issue at a national level,\u201d Torres explained.  \u201cThat is a great opportunity and I believe he will do great for America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Torres said that now is the time to rally around Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been criticized so many times, you always get questioned what you do, how you do things.  In due time, it\u2019s ours to work with in that position.  Criticism comes with the territory but when you\u2019re given that opportunity, you got to step up and make sure that you do what you\u2019re telling people to do and protect and create jobs, increase the economy and so forth.  And so now that he is given that opportunity, despite all the criticism and the setback and the unfairness and so on, the bottom line is the people, through their way of political process, he is now our President.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Gov. Ralph DLG Torres led a coterie of CNMI and Guam officials at the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":245018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[4361,26,67,38],"class_list":["post-245005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-aapi","tag-cnmi","tag-people","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245005","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}