Enjoy, have fun with families and friends during the Christmas holidays, CNMI\u2019s top leaders said yesterday, expressing special greetings for Iraq-bound soldiers who are on a holiday break. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to wish everybody a merry and a safe Christmas. To our soldiers, I salute them for their very special contribution in preserving our freedom. It\u2019s a special time for everybody to enjoy,\u201d said Gov. Juan N. Babauta, who spent half the day yesterday playing golf with friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a holiday. I\u2019m enjoying it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he would attend a Mass and go to one of his aunts for Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll visit families and relatives. I\u2019ve got a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish all the people a merry Christmas, specially our visiting soldiers who took time to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones,\u201d said Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente.<\/p>\n
Benavente said about 60 of some 80 CNMI army reservists who went on training for deployment to Iraq next year are on island.<\/p>\n
One of them, he said, is his 20-something nephew Roman Benavente, son of his older brother Eddie.<\/p>\n
Another one is Cris Sablan, the husband of his niece.<\/p>\n
Benavente said he would celebrate Christmas with his family. \u201cI\u2019ll have a family dinner after the Mass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial spent his day yesterday attending parties of families and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to spend with friends and loved ones. I wish everybody a truly blessed Christmas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vice Speaker Timothy Villagomez, for his part, made his last-minute shopping yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m shopping for kids and adults alike. I\u2019m wishing everybody a merry Christmas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Joseph Mendiola of Tinian was on Saipan yesterday, partly to do some Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going back to Tinian later,\u201d he said Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Mendiola, who was on medical leave recently, also expressed gratefulness for his health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back with more zest for life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enjoy, have fun with families and friends during the Christmas holidays, CNMI\u2019s top leaders said yesterday, expressing special greetings for Iraq-bound soldiers who are on a holiday break. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86680","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}