{"id":303883,"date":"2019-07-18T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T20:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=303883"},"modified":"2019-07-18T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T20:00:21","slug":"liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberation Day contest winners get their prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-303883 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes\/liberation-day-pix1-2\/'>Liberation Day pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-303902'>\n\t\t\t\tRepresentatives of the Liberation Day parade float competition\u2019s first prize winner, TanHoldings, are presented with the $3,000\u00a0prize by Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee vice chair Shayne Villanueva, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang ,and Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee chair Joe Ayuyu Jr. (Bea Cabrera)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes\/liberation-day-pix2-2\/'>Liberation Day pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-303903'>\n\t\t\t\tRepresentatives of the Liberation Day parade float competition\u2019s second prize winner, United Filipino Organization, are presented with the $2,000 by Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee vice chair Shayne Villanueva, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, and Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee chair Joe Ayuyu Jr. (Bea Cabrera)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes\/liberation-day-pix3\/'>Liberation Day pix3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-303904'>\n\t\t\t\tLiberation Day parade float competition\u2019s third prize winner, Eusebio Borja, is joined by his wife, Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee vice chair Shayne Villanueva, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, and Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee chair Joe Ayuyu Jr. (Bea Cabrera)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/liberation-day-contest-winners-get-their-prizes\/liberation-day-pix4\/'>Liberation Day pix4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-303905'>\n\t\t\t\tRepresentatives of the Liberation Day parade float competition\u2019s fourth prize winner, CNMI Carolinian Affairs Office, are joined by Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee vice chair Shayne Villanueva, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, and Liberation Day Parade Planning Committee chair Joe Ayuyu Jr. (Bea Cabrera)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Jadrien L. Lotoc\u2019s name was picked out of hundreds of coupons at the 2019 Liberation Day raffle draw last July 4, making this Kagman resident the grand prize winner of $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberation Day Planning Committee, led by chair Joe Ayuyu Jr., presented the check to 21-year-old Lotoc and to the other raffle draw winners at the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office in Susupe yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they were announcing the grand prize winner starting with the ticket number then my name, I literally went still and stared at the stage thinking, \u2018Is it really me?\u2019\u201d Lotoc said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike me, family members who were there with me when my name was picked were shocked but, of course, [also] happy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Lotoc plans to save the amount, with an eye at investing it on a type of investment \u201cthat will be of great help for the future\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The raffle\u2019s first place with a cash prize of $5,000 went to Jennifer Lizama of Dandan. \u201cI was at home and it was my children who were at the raffle announcement. They called me to say I won,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>At first, she wasn\u2019t too excited because there are a lot of Jennifer Lizamas on island and she wasn\u2019t sure if it was she who won the raffle. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to see the numbers to be sure as,\u201d she added. \u201cI checked the number the next day and I said, \u2018Oh my, it is really me\u2019 and my initial reaction was, \u2018I get to finish my house!\u2019 Our house was all gone after [Super Typhoon] Yutu and what we got initially wasn\u2019t enough. The cash prize will put up all the doors and the windows, so this is a great blessing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Other winners were Esterlita Camacho who won twice for second and fifth places, Ricky Itibus for third place and the Liberation Day Planning Committee is still identifying the owner of the number picked for fourth place.<\/p>\n<p>The total amount of funds raised from the sale of raffle tickets was a little over $96,000 and, according to committee chair Joe Ayuyu Jr., the intention of selling tickets was to raise funds to be able to put up this kind of event for the community. \u201cIt all goes toward operations\u2014paying for the fireworks, preparing the grounds, the games and overall entertainment ,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Liberation Day Parade raffle prizes is one of the biggest cash prizes on Saipan, so people get excited and it is good because it helps us raise money. \u2026It is a very good incentive for people to buy tickets. \u2026 After [Super] Typhoon Yutu, I think we haven\u2019t had a celebration, so this was a very good chance for families to get together have quality time,\u201d Ayuyu added.<\/p>\n<p>Liberation Day Planning Committee vice chair Shayne Villanueva said that a portion of the funds that was raised also gets donated to charity. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, we donated to the [Saipan] Mayor\u2019s Office\u2019s dog [control] program and to two other entities as well. That is our plan for this year. We identify charities that need help and we usually vote and we give them a certain percentage of the total,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang was not expecting many people to come out and join the Liberation Day festivities, especially after Super Typhoon Yutu. \u201cBut people showed up in high spirits and it shows resiliency. \u2026The community was one again. We also had the participation and help of businesses and many volunteers to make the celebration a success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The 2019 Liberation Day parade float competition winners were also presented with their prizes yesterday. First place went to the TanHoldings company, with a cash prize of $3,000. Second place went to the United Filipino Organizations, the umbrella organization of Filipino groups in the CNMI, with a cash prize of $2,000. Third place went to private citizen Eusebio Borja, with a cash prize of $1,000, for his karetan guaka (bull cart) that was being pulled by a cow at the parade, and fourth place went to the CNMI Carolinian Affairs Office with a cash prize of $500. This year\u2019s parade theme was \u201cMarianas Strong,\u201d underscoring the CNMI\u2019s resiliency in the wake of Yutu, which hit the CNMI in October 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jadrien L. Lotoc\u2019s name was picked out of hundreds of coupons at the 2019 Liberation&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":303902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-303883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-liberation-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303883","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}