Hundreds of supporters and well wishers trooped to the Civic Center in Susupe yesterday to join incoming Gov. Benigno Fitial and Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez\u2019s Thanksgiving party, which coincided with the governor-elect\u2019s 60th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never feel old. I\u2019m 60 years young,\u201d quipped Fitial, who added that, besides having the same name as that of Philippine hero Benigno Aquino, both of them were born on the same date and year.<\/p>\n
In a serious tone, Fitial said he would like to thank God for giving him 60 years of life and wished that he would live very much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish the good Lord will shower His good graces upon Ben&Tim and the Covenant Party so that we can continue to move forward and achieve better times for the CNMI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The huge crowd turnout feasted on food and refreshments\u2014good for 8,000 people\u2014that also included a giant cake measuring over 20 feet long and over three feet wide. The cake, which contained an icing design of the Northern Marianas map, also contained a big \u201cThank You\u201d following the victory of Fitial-Villagomez and other Covenant Party candidates in the recent elections.<\/p>\n
The crowd also enjoyed entertainment that featured local bands, singers, and cultural dancers, among others, who showed off their talents on a stage festooned by red and blue balloons.<\/p>\n
When asked about the color of the balloons\u2014which was not the Covenant\u2019s signature color green\u2014Fitial said: \u201cAfter the elections, no more politics. I encourage cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebrations started at about 10am and lasted for about six hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hundreds of supporters and well wishers trooped to the Civic Center in Susupe yesterday to join incoming Gov. Benigno Fitial and Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez\u2019s Thanksgiving party, which coincided with the governor-elect\u2019s 60th birthday.<\/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-95782","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\/95782","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=95782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}