{"id":305231,"date":"2019-08-02T06:06:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=305231"},"modified":"2019-08-02T06:06:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:06:08","slug":"fr-rosal-14-others-take-oath-as-new-us-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/fr-rosal-14-others-take-oath-as-new-us-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr. Rosal, 14 others take oath as new US citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), and Immigration Services Officer Tammy Henry join the 15 new U.S. citizens in a group photo after yesterday\u2019s naturalization ceremony in the District Court.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fr. Rey Dejon Rosal, the parish priest of San Jose on Tinian, was one of 15 people who took their oaths of allegiance as new U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.<\/p>\n

With the citizenship, Rosal no longer considers himself a \u201cvisitor\u201d in the CNMI. \u201cAt last. I waited for this to really complete my personality here,\u201d said the 58-year-old Rosal.<\/p>\n

Rosal originally came from Ormoc, Leyte, in the Philippines. He first arrived on Saipan on Feb. 20, 2004, to serve as a priest reliever at San Antonio Church for a month when the parish priest was on vacation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, I was asked to stay for a while to work here. Then I ended up here forever,\u201d said Rosal with a smile.<\/p>\n

For 57-year-old Maria Lee Bignayan Labadan, obtaining her citizenship is an honor. Labadan, a native of Iloilo City, Philippines, first came to the island in 1989 when she worked at a garment factory. She married Daniel Palacios Agulto and together, they had six children. Of that number, three are with the U.S. Navy. Agulto passed away in 2003.<\/p>\n

Labadan then worked at the Department of Labor in 1992, where she is now an executive secretary.<\/p>\n

Leo Cela Clamor is thankful that, at 67 years old, he finally obtained U.S. citizenship. Clamor, who hails from Eastern Samar, Philippines, first arrived on the island in 1979 as a welder. Clamor\u2019s eldest of two children is now with the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted Immigration Services Officer Tammy Henry\u2019s motion to accept the 15 applicants as new U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

Most of the new citizens are from the Philippines and the rest are from China, South Korea, and Japan. <\/p>\n

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), who served as the guest speaker at the ceremony, took a swipe at President Donald Trump, who told his fellow citizens to \u201cgo home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was wrong. America is our home. It will always be our home,\u201d he said. \u201cReal Americans will never tell you to go back where you came from.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sablan told the new citizens that real Americans\u2014just like they are now real Americans\u2014will always say \u201clet us all go forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sablan said the naturalized citizens chose America and that America chose them as full and equal members of the nation.<\/p>\n

He said most believe that America is a land of immigrants. \u201cWe believe America\u2019s strength comes from its ability to welcome a diversity of talents, and new traditions and points of view,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sablan acknowledged that \u201cthere is a divide, but not a partisan divide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The delegate said the divide is between patriots, who truly believe in the values American stands for, and those who do not believe in America.<\/p>\n

To prove it is not partisan, Sablan played in the courtroom a four-minute video about former president Ronald Reagan\u2019s final speech from the White House, in which spoke about the value of immigrants to America.<\/p>\n

Sablan described Reagan as a great communicator and an icon of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone who understood well that America is better, and richer, and stronger because we welcome people\u2014like you\u2014to join us as citizens,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Aside from Rosal, Labadan, and Clamor, the other new citizens were Samylyn Tupas Atalig, Young Soon Choi, Joselito Ramirez Ejercito, Marilyn Montajes Ejercito, Patricio Barnachea Fieldad, Zenaida Medina Fieldad, Sanghoon Kim, Satoko Kishimoto Kobayashi, Hao Guo Mason, Iva Joy Borja Maurin, Erlinda Vismanos Pacheco, and Dennis De Guia Tupas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr. Rey Dejon Rosal, the parish priest of San Jose on Tinian, was one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":305232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[320],"class_list":["post-305231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305231","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=305231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}