{"id":302918,"date":"2019-07-05T06:05:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T20:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=302918"},"modified":"2019-07-05T06:05:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T20:05:05","slug":"resilience-center-stage-at-libday-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/resilience-center-stage-at-libday-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Resilience center stage at LibDay parade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
This cow-drawn cart that participated in the Liberation Day Parade drew many boisterous claps from the audience. The cow\u2019s mwar, or head lei, particularly drew many laughs. (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite an early rainfall that hit the parade route before the start of the 73rd Liberation Day Parade, the sun later appeared with a vengeance and dried up the parade route on time, with hundreds of spectators lining the entire stretch of the parade route from the National Office Supply to the Garapan Fishing Base.<\/p>\n

The parade\u2019s grand marshal, TanHoldings president and CEO Jerry Tan, led a total of 44 participating groups and floats, with motorcycle-riding groups taking the lead in revving everybody\u2019s spirits up at the head of the parade.<\/p>\n

Of particular note in this year\u2019s parade was the participation of Burke Waldron, a 95-year old World War II veteran. <\/p>\n

A 30-minute fireworks display was later held at 9pm at the Garapan Fishing Base. This year\u2019s theme was \u201cMarianas Strong\u201d and many floats highlighted that trait.<\/p>\n

There were six non-competition floats at the parade: Herman\u2019s Modern Bakery, The Office of Youth Affairs (with the offices of Indigenous Affairs, Women\u2019s Affairs, and Northern Islands Mayor\u2019s Office), Lady Diann Torres Foundation, Department of Public Works, Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office (with the CNMI Museum), and the Liberation Day Royal Court.<\/p>\n

The eight competition floats were the Governor\u2019s Office (with the Carolinian Affairs Office), TanHoldings, Marianas Visitors Authority, Department of Corrections, Eusebio Borja, 180 Productions, the United Filipino Organization, and the Office of Aging.<\/p>\n

Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang was amazed at what all the floats showed, saying it was hard to decide which one would be the winner of the float competition, but they are all winners in his book.<\/p>\n

He was also happy to see that the parade was finished at an earlier time. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see that we were able to complete the parade on time, and now spectators are able to go home in time and enjoy the rest of the night,\u201d Apatang added.<\/p>\n

Apatag feels that this parade is very special. In an interview with Saipan Tribune he said, \u201cAlthough we just went through [Super Typhoon] Yutu, people came out to show their support with the spirit of [being] together. \u2026I want to thank our community for coming out to watch and participate in this event. This will hopefully bring up our spirits and continue to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Luis John Castro (R-Saipan) was thrilled to see all the competing floats this year. \u201cI believe that the floats took the theme of \u2018Marianas Strong\u2019 to the next level, which is great for myself and all the spectators,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n

The winners of the float competition were to be announced last night. However, when asked for their opinions, many spectators said the winning floats could be the floats from the 180 Production, the United Filipino Organization, and the Office of Aging.<\/p>\n

The 180 Production float amazed spectators with a rap about finding grace and fighting personal evils. The United Filipino Organization\u2019s float displayed a wrecked car over the float and the designs of the utt and latte stone, resembling the CNMI flag.<\/p>\n

The Office of Aging\u2019s float displayed \u201cStrength Through Adversity\u201d while also creating references to the Game of Thrones series, with participants clad in fake armors.<\/p>\n

Overall, Apatang thanked all the participants, sponsors, and the spectators for appearing and hopes that next year\u2019s Liberation Day parade \u201cgoes as well as this year\u2019s parade.\u201d (With Reica Ramirez)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite an early rainfall that hit the parade route before the start of the 73rd…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":302919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302918","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=302918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}