{"id":333399,"date":"2020-11-13T06:05:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T20:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=333399"},"modified":"2020-11-13T06:05:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T20:05:24","slug":"babauta-sworn-in-today-as-precinct-1-rep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/babauta-sworn-in-today-as-precinct-1-rep\/","title":{"rendered":"Babauta sworn in today as Precinct 1 rep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Department of Public Safety official Franklin Reyes Babauta will be sworn in today, Friday, as a representative of Precinct 1 for the House of Representatives. Come January, he will turn over the House office\u2019s keys to his wife, who won the same seat at the Nov. 3 election.<\/p>\n

Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja will administer the oath of office for Babauta at a ceremony in the House chamber at 10am.<\/p>\n

Babauta will be in office until Jan. 11, 2021, which is the remaining term of Edwin K. Propst, who resigned as Precinct 1 representative last Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Come Jan. 11, in a first in CNMI history, Babauta will turn over the House office\u2019s keys to his wife at the completion of his term.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Franklin Reyes Babauta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Babauta\u2019s wife, Celina, is a sure winner as Precinct 1 representative in the Nov. 3 general elections after getting the second highest number of votes, behind Propst, according to the Commonwealth Election Commission\u2019s unofficial tabulation results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the military, we call it a change of command,\u201d Celina said.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Veterans Day, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres appointed Babauta as representative for Election District 1, soon after House Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao (R-Saipan) declared a vacancy when Propst resigned.<\/p>\n

The governor said he appreciates Babauta\u2019s willingness to serve in this role of providing representation for the people of Election District 1.<\/p>\n

Babauta said he is happy with the appointment and he is ready to serve the community.<\/p>\n

Babauta, who ran as an independent candidate in 2018, landing in seventh place for Precinct 1 representative; there are only six House seats.<\/p>\n

Babauta retired from DPS in August 2006 with a rank of deputy commissioner for administration.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Babauta moved to Guam and joined the Guam Army National Guard. He was then deployed to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

He retired with a rank of lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army in 2015. In the military, his last tour of duty was with the security forces advisory team in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Babauta served as a lieutenant colonel in \u201cOperation Enduring Freedom\u201d in southern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Department of Public Safety official Franklin Reyes Babauta will be sworn in today, Friday,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":333338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333399","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\/333399","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=333399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}