{"id":273940,"date":"2018-04-13T06:06:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T20:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=273940"},"modified":"2018-04-13T06:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T20:06:43","slug":"babauta-sablan-announce-candidacies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/babauta-sablan-announce-candidacies\/","title":{"rendered":"Babauta, Sablan announce candidacies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former governor Juan N. Babauta and Dr. Rita A. Sablan announced their candidacy for governor and lieutenant governor at his house in Gualo Rai yesterday afternoon. (Ferdie de la Torre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Citing an erosion of public confidence, discomfort, and distrust of the government in the last four years, former governor Juan N. Babauta and former education commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan officially announced their independent candidacies yesterday for governor and lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do something about it, and that is why we are running,\u201d said Babauta as he raised the left hand of Sablan, drawing cheers from supporters, family members, and relatives at Babauta\u2019s house in Gualo Rai.<\/p>\n

Babauta noted that the CNMI had similar problems in the past \u201cand the rebel in me came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [now] we are seeing the repeat of that,\u201d he added, citing several cases that he described as \u201cnonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t tolerate those kinds of nonsense,\u201d he added, saying he does not tolerate a society that persecutes people, that demeans people, that takes advantage of people, and that takes away their rights, whether they are citizens of the United States or not. <\/p>\n

Babauta said for him and Sablan to turn the other cheek will simply mean that they are complicit and they become part of the problem, not the solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we are standing here to tell you that we want to be part of the solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Babauta said the cumulative events of the last four years in the CNMI are the driving force behind his and Sablan\u2019s decision to run. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany in the CNMI saw and felt the events of the last four years with discomfort and distrust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To many in the CNMI, Babauta said, the last four years have once again cast a sinister view of government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a government at its best. It has eroded the public confidence and cast a dark cloud over the integrity of many who are supposed to be in positions of trust,\u201d the former governor said.<\/p>\n

Babauta said it is reminiscent of events that took place in the CNMI not too long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers are being exploited, workers die at worksites without explanation, and no one is being held responsible,\u201d he said, adding that workers are being unjustly compensated and are being silenced by flying them out of the CNMI in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Babauta noted that a large portion of the CNMI population is still at poverty level or below. He said this is not the CNMI that the people envisioned when they became U.S. citizens in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids and future generations will inevitably ask: Did you do something about it? We don\u2019t want them to tell us that we were complicit and that we were silent and did not do anything,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n

Sablan said that everyone want to see a change in the service of government for the people and for people to have faith in its government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all lost faith and I think we need to restore that. And we can do this together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The former education commissioner said people want trustworthiness, accountability, responsibility, and integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is your desire and that is our desire as well,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Among the supporters who attended the gathering were former Department of Public Safety deputy commissioner Franklin Reyes Babauta, former Department of Corrections commissioner Lino Tenorio, and former Labor secretary Edith DeLeon Guerrero. <\/p>\n

Franklin Babauta and Tenorio told Saipan Tribune that they are running as independent for House seats representing precinct 1. DeLeon Guerrero said she has not decided yet whether to run for a House seat.<\/p>\n

The Babauta-Sablan tandem is the first to challenge Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Senate President Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan) for the top CNMI posts at the Nov. 6 general election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citing an erosion of public confidence, discomfort, and distrust of the government in the last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":273941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,197,65,67],"class_list":["post-273940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-gualo-rai","tag-house","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273940","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}