{"id":423319,"date":"2024-11-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=423319"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Maratita-sworn-in-as-Rota-MVA-board-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Maratita-sworn-in-as-Rota-MVA-board-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Maratita sworn in as Rota MVA board member"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the seat being empty for several months, Dwayne Lizama Maratita was sworn in as Marianas Visitors Authority board member representing Rota last Friday at the MVA office in Garapan.<\/p>\n

Maratita\u00a0expressed his excitement in joining MVA and he hopes he can help bring more tourists to his home island.<\/p>\n

Maratita was born and raised on Rota with a background as an officer with the Transportation Security Administration. He also worked for Bank of Guam and Bank of Saipan before getting into government service in 2003 as a Student Support Services coordinator with the Rota campus of Northern Marianas College.<\/p>\n

Following his stint at NMC, Maratita became a resident department head for the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs and worked with former Rota mayor Efraim Atalig as a public relations officer.<\/p>\n

Maratita\u00a0also gained experience as a grant writer for the Office of Grants Management under the Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s appointed to the MVA board, Maratita shared he is happy to put his considerable experience in helping bring more tourists to his home island of Rota and the rest of the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad to be here, and I\u2019m honored. I will do everything in my power and my best ability to serve the community and serve the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maratita\u00a0also shared recent developments on Rota to improve it as a tourist destination, including the acquisition of several statues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have the sculptures on Saipan and so we\u2019re setting up shipping them over to Rota. We\u2019re looking at probably installation by mid-December or early January. That\u2019s something new for our tourist sites back home. There are six wildlife and one 14-foot Chamorro chief statue that we\u2019re going to be placing. We\u2019re going to be placing the statues at the ancient latte quarry… That\u2019s a new attraction for Rota and I\u2019m absolutely guaranteeing that that\u2019s going to enhance our tourism activities on Rota.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said tourism has just been hard on Rota lately, but is optimistic that one step at a time, he hopes to see it thriving once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up you can\u2019t even enter mom and pop stores on Rota because there\u2019s so much tourists. That\u2019s what I want to bring back. Slowly but surely, maybe not at that volume, but of course, with all the concerted effort, like I said, with the assistance of the Office of Governor. We\u2019re so grateful from the beginning, and the governor has always been assisting us as well as the lieutenant governor. That\u2019s one thing, is to put a plan in place, a strategic plan, so that we can be able to sustain the tourism industry on Rota and the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maratita said he is very optimistic about the future of the tourism industry on Rota despite the CNMI\u2019s current economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that alongside with the Office of Governor, like I said, with Marianas Visitors Authority, we will achieve what is necessary just to maintain it. We\u2019re not looking at a million tourists coming in in the next couple of years or so, but gradually, it\u2019s a process. And what it takes is just coming together and really devising a plan and sticking to the plan, and eventually everything will work. I always have been a believer in sustainability. As a grant writer, it\u2019s important that at any time that you submit a proposal, you emphasize it, you reiterate it\u2019s a sustainable plan. So that\u2019s important to me. All CNMI residents should be grateful for having an awesome team here at MVA. Like I said, I\u2019m grateful that I was given this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

MVA managing director Chris Concepcion shared Maratita\u2019s enthusiasm about the future of the CNMI\u2019s tourism industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited. Rota is going to be represented on our board, finally. It\u2019s been vacant since Agida T. Quitugua Manglona resigned earlier this year. So, we\u2019re excited to have him on board. He will bring his experiences with him and he\u2019s going to be able to work with us to bring in more tourists to Rota.\u201d<\/p>\n

MVA board chair Gloria Cavanaugh echoed the same sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a while, I think since March, when Rota was represented on the board of directors. We\u2019re very happy that director\u00a0Maratita was finally confirmed and then comes on board. I mean, just from today alone, he seems to be very eager to help his community on Rota through the MVA. We\u2019re very excited about him being part of it and we\u2019re hoping that he\u2019ll be able to immerse himself into what we do and what we\u2019re all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dwayne Lizama\u00a0Maratita was sworn in as Marianas Visitors Authority\u2019s new Rota representative last Friday at MVA\u2019s office in Garapan.<\/p>\n

-CHRYSTAL MARINO
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