Gov, Eloy S. Inos paid tribute to past and present mayors of the CNMI during his speech at the 69th Liberation Day at the Garapan Fishing Basin yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come as one to honor the caretakers of our islands, our mayors, people who go out of their way every day to keep our villages clean and safe.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is these mayors, Inos said, who oversaw Liberation Day festivities as part of their duties.<\/p>\n
Inos spoke warmly of the late Saipan mayor Donald Glenn Pangelinan Flores, who he described as \u201ca soul who enjoyed July 4th so much that he would walk the entire parade route as its head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inos described a mayor\u2019s duty as one that \u201ctraces itself back to inside the gates of Camp Susupe and Chalan Kanoa, starting with the first high chief Juan M. Ada, to the person who was first to be called mayor of Saipan, the late Elias Parung Sablan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inos also asked the audience to observe a moment of silence to honor former mayors Francisco M. Diaz, Jesus \u201cGere\u201d Guerrero, Juan Borja Tudela, Prudencio Manglona, and Donald Flores, who passed away in recent years.<\/p>\n
Inos\u2019 speech was part of a ceremony titled \u201cReunion of Honor: Tribute to the Mayors,\u201d which included speakers such as Vicente C. Camacho, chairman of the 69th Liberation Day Committee, and Saipan Mayor Marian Dlg. Tudela.<\/p>\n
Camacho described the day as a \u201csolemn celebration\u201d and thanked all the mayors who served the CNMI in the past, extolling the \u201cpurposeful intent\u201d which helped and will help the CNMI \u201cgrow and advance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tudela, the CNMI\u2019s first female mayor, spoke of \u201cthe flag that bore 48 white stars, and seven red and six white stripes\u201d that \u201cflew in the island\u2019s gasping breeze\u201d to signify the end of World War II and the beginning of a lasting peace in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
She said the U.S. flag is a symbol that should remind the CNMI people of the thousands of lives, of soldiers and of locals as well, that paid the \u201cmost expensive journey\u201d to ensure their freedom. \u201cLet us not forget, for a single moment, that we walk amongst our forefathers on these grounds today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ceremony ended with a presentation of plaques to family members of Saipan\u2019s past mayors: Gregorio San Nicolas Sablan, Elias Parung Sablan, Ignacio Villagomez Benavente, Vicente Diaz Sablan, Luis Arriola Benavente, Francisco Manibusan Diaz, Jose Santos Rios, Gilbert Castro Ada, Jose Mettao Taitano, Jesus Sablan Guerrero, Jose C. Sablan, Juan Borja Tudela, Donald Glenn Pangelinan Flores, and Juan Borja Tudela.<\/p>\n
According to Camacho, both former and late mayors of Tinian and Rota will also be receiving plaques in honorary ceremonies sometime between this week and the next. (By DENNIS B. CHAN)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov, Eloy S. Inos paid tribute to past and present mayors of the CNMI during…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46,26,67,945],"class_list":["post-40804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ceremony","tag-cnmi","tag-people","tag-prudencio-manglona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40804","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}