{"id":279311,"date":"2018-07-04T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=279311"},"modified":"2018-07-04T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T20:00:43","slug":"ph-honorary-consul-9-others-take-oath-as-new-us-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ph-honorary-consul-9-others-take-oath-as-new-us-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"PH honorary consul, 9 others take oath as new US citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP), and Immigration Services officer Teresa Vega-Murrieta pose with 10 new U.S. citizens during yesterday\u2019s naturalization ceremony. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philippine honorary consul to the CNMI Glicerio \u201cEli\u201d Del Mundo Arago and nine others joined yesterday more than 14,000 other individuals in taking their oath of allegiance and reciting the pledge of allegiance as new U.S. citizens in 175 naturalization ceremonies across the nation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201dArago said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Arago said the citizenship legitimized his more than 30 years of stay in the CNMI. <\/p>\n

Arago, who hails from Batangas, Philippines, arrived on Saipan to work with TanHoldings in 1986. He is currently the senior vice president of Tan Holdings Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have spent one half of my life here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A U.S. citizen can still be a Philippine honorary consul so Arago\u2019s designation will not be affected with his new citizenship. <\/p>\n

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona welcomed the new citizens during the naturalization ceremony held in the eve of the Independence Day celebration.<\/p>\n

Manglona granted Immigration Services officer Teresa Vega-Murrieta\u2019s motion to accept the 10 individuals as new citizens.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP) told the new citizens that they made a major decision that changed their and family\u2019s course when they decided to move to the Marianas.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou packed up your life and left everything behind. Whether you made the move for work, love, family, adventure, or simply a better life\u2014it was a courageous step,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

He said like millions of immigrants before them and so many people in the Marianas today, the new citizens chose to become citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat took courage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The delegate said each of the new citizens has own story of struggle, doubt, perseverance, and success.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we not only celebrate your success: we also celebrate your courage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sablan advised the new citizens that as they take their oath and swear allegiance to the country, to let courage continue to be their guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe bold and brave in your citizenship. Pursue your education or career goals. Start a business. Serve your community. Vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember that in America, and here in the Marianas, you are valued. Your talents, experiences, and perspective enrich our community, and make us stronger as a nation,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Aside from Arago, the nine other new citizens are Elena Pavlovna Alexandrova, Cornelio Dimaranan Alomia, Siriwan Camacho, Merni Beck Geisinger, Kaiwen Lin, Celedonio Quezada Manibo, Dante Gaffud Pantaleon Jr., Qiuna Ren Taitano, and Quiping Ma Waki. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philippine honorary consul to the CNMI Glicerio \u201cEli\u201d Del Mundo Arago and nine others joined…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":279331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56,93,21,63],"class_list":["post-279311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-business-3","tag-district-court","tag-life","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279311","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=279311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}