{"id":29844,"date":"2014-03-13T09:39:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T01:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=29844"},"modified":"2014-03-13T09:39:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T01:39:24","slug":"kagman-fire-station-unveils-new-name-honor-fallen-firefighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kagman-fire-station-unveils-new-name-honor-fallen-firefighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagman fire station unveils new name in honor of fallen firefighter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CNMI<\/a>
CNMI firefighters have their picture taken after yesterday morning?s unveiling of Kagman Fire Station?s new name?the ?Ernie T. Dela Cruz Fire Station #5??in honor of the late firefighter, Ernie Teigita Dela Cruz. (Haidee V. Eugenio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have not forgotten about you,\u201d acting Department of Public Safety commissioner Thomas M. Manglona told a crowd shortly before yesterday morning\u2019s unveiling of Kagman Fire Station\u2019s new name\u2014the \u201cErnie T. Dela Cruz Fire Station #5\u201d\u2014in honor of the late firefighter, Ernie Teigita Dela Cruz.
\nThe unveiling of the fire station\u2019s new name marked the exact seventh anniversary of Dela Cruz\u2019s untimely passing on March 12, 2007. Dela Cruz worked as a firefighter III for the DPS Fire Division for more than 17 years until his passing during a physical training exercise at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big honor for him and the whole family. It\u2019s such a good timing,\u201d the late firefighter\u2019s wife, Velma DLG. Dela Cruz, told Saipan Tribune at the ceremony. They were married in 1993 and blessed with four children.<\/p>\n

Gov. Eloy S. Inos, Rep. Antonio Agulto (Ind-Saipan), the Dela Cruz family, and Fr. Isaac Ayuyu led the fire station\u2019s dedication ceremony, which drew a crowd of community members, government officials, firefighters, and police officers.<\/p>\n

Manglona, also the director of DPS\u2019 Fire Division, remembers with fondness his last conversation with Dela Cruz seven years ago when the latter visited his office to share his plans to help the division and the community, only to receive news later of Dela Cruz\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

The governor, for his part, thanked DPS and Fire Division not only for the dedication ceremony in honor of the late Dela Cruz but also for \u201crisking their lives\u201d to provide a safer community.<\/p>\n

Agulto, author of the local bill renaming the Kagman fire station that became law, echoed the governor\u2019s statement, honoring and thanking firefighters and other law enforcement officers for serving the public. He also thanked the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. for the ongoing renovation of the fire station in Kagman.<\/p>\n

Both Agulto and Manglona said Dela Cruz is the first from the CNMI to be included in 2010 into the U.S. National Fallen Firefighters Monument.<\/p>\n

Officials said the late Dela Cruz was \u201cdedicated and committed\u201d to serving the CNMI people and positively impacted those who were fortunate enough to know him. He was actively involved in many civic activities in his community, and volunteered in numerous school and church activities. They said that Dela Cruz\u2019s sudden passing \u201cwas a great loss\u201d to the CNMI.<\/p>\n

The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation passed in November last year Agulto\u2019s House Local Bill 18-20, renaming the Kagman Fire Station in honor of Dela Cruz. In January this year, the governor signed the local bill into Saipan Local Law 18-8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe have not forgotten about you,\u201d acting Department of Public Safety commissioner Thomas M. Manglona…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":29850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46,26,35],"class_list":["post-29844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ceremony","tag-cnmi","tag-dps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29844","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}