\u201cI feel sad,\u201d Gov. Juan N. Babauta admits in a low voice, a meditative look on his face while seated in his office chair on Capitol Hill. His head moved down a little, then he looked up and continued: \u201cI really like my job. It\u2019s very fulfilling. It\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his last media interview during his last working day on Friday, Babauta said that he was really bent on working hard as governor for four more years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very sad that I\u2019m not able to serve for another four years,\u201d he said, referring to his exit from government tomorrow resulting from his failed electoral attempt to serve for another four years as governor.<\/p>\n
Babauta began his day Friday at 7:30am, hosting coffee and breakfast for some friends in his residence in Gualo Rai until about 10am.<\/p>\n
At 10:30am, he went to the Grotto in Marpi to do his last gubernatorial ribbon-cutting activity for the Grotto Rehabilitation Project, an event which he said fittingly reflected his administration’s emphasis on environmental issues.<\/p>\n
“This will be my last ribbon-cutting as governor. And I am quite pleased that this final act is one that protects the environment of our islands,” Babauta had remarked.<\/p>\n
The governor stayed in the Grotto area until noon, eating a sandwich for his lunch.<\/p>\n
From the Grotto, he proceeded to his office to meet with some people. He went out at about 2pm with some friends for a meal at Kingfisher\u2019s Restaurant. After an hour, he returned to his office to sign documents and meet more people.<\/p>\n
As of 4pm, the governor had no schedule yet for dinner. He said he would probably just go out with some friends.<\/p>\n
Babauta said he did not sign any more bills into laws during his last day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just mainly personnel, contract documents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babauta said earlier that he planned to serve out his term up to the last day because “the people of the CNMI deserve no less.”<\/p>\n
He remains the governor until Monday, Jan. 9, at 2pm when his successor, Gov.-elect Benigno R. Fitial, will be sworn in at American Memorial Park.<\/p>\n
Babauta said that serving as governor \u201chas been a tremendous honor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s the biggest honor that can be bestowed on anyone. I really learned a lot. It has been a learning experience for me,” he said.<\/p>\n
The governor, 52, who won by a landslide in the 2001 general elections, lost by 199 votes in last year\u2019s elections to his political opponent, House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, 60.<\/p>\n
Babauta had defeated Fitial in the gubernatorial race four years ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI feel sad,\u201d Gov. Juan N. Babauta admits in a low voice, a meditative look on his face while seated in his office chair on Capitol Hill. His head moved down a little, then he looked up and continued: \u201cI really like my job. It\u2019s very fulfilling. It\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d<\/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-96986","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\/96986","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=96986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}