{"id":290579,"date":"2018-12-18T06:10:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T20:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=290579"},"modified":"2018-12-18T06:10:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T20:10:19","slug":"attao-peoples-interests-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/attao-peoples-interests-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Attao: People\u2019s interests first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The lawmaker lined up to be the next speaker of the CNMI House of Representatives, Blas Jonathan T. Attao, hopes the relationship he has cultivated with the members of the House minority and the ruling GOP would result in legislation that would further improve the lives of people in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m surrounded by experience and I know that the working relationship is there. \u2026We can push forward getting the need that our people deserve and hopefully get to the point in giving the people what they want,\u201d said Attao. \u201cBy working together, I know that we can take care of the needs but the goal is to get to the wants. And with the dynamics that we have here, the experience and knowledge around here is going to get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that people\u2019s interests should always come first. \u201cTo help our people first, that\u2019s the mentality that we\u2019re going to push through. To help our people, because the end result is not for the members of the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe end result is for the public and that is what we want. Are we going to face controversial legislations? Probably. We want to get to that point where we would be working together to help each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Making tough decisions would always be part of their job. He promises transparency, though.<\/p>\n<p>Next generation<\/p>\n<p>He said that expanding the opportunities for the next generation would also be their priority. \u201cWe will always try to look at ways of improving the next generations\u2019 livelihood and giving them more opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur grandparents\u2026gave us the opportunity to flourish individually and expand ourselves. \u2026With that, the goal is to get to the point [where we could] provide for those who would come after us. That\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Get elected first<\/p>\n<p>He said the thought of being House speaker was brought up to him before the election. He didn\u2019t entertain it at first, since primarily, he needs to needs to get re-elected. \u201cIt was brought up to me multiple times before the election and I never considered it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause, I am always thinking that you have to get through an election before you start making any moves. You cannot play chess if you are not even at the table to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The possibility dawned on him after he won his third term at the House. \u201cAfter that, we looked at all the angles. On how I have gone through at the Legislature, as an employee at the Legislative Bureau and then a member.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lawmaker lined up to be the next speaker of the CNMI House of Representatives,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290579","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}