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Six take oath as new US citizens
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Posted on Dec 18 2011
For Maria Victoria Camama Saures, acquiring her U.S. citizenship means freedom to travel wherever she wants to go.
Saures, 35, first arrived on Saipan from the Philippines in 2002 and worked as an insurance underwriter for an insurance company. Saures married Alfred Saures in 2004 and, in 2005, became a teacher at Marianas High School.
Mrs. Saures was among the six Filipinos who took their oath to become U.S. citizens on Friday morning in a special naturalization ceremony at the U.S. District Court for the NMI.
“I’m very happy. Now I have freedom to travel with my son and husband,” she said.
She acknowledged, however, that being a U.S. citizen also comes with big responsibilities.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona administered the oath to the six petitioners—Mrs. Saures, Alexander Buenaventura Madamba, Merlyn Delos Santos Del Rosario, Rhodora Hernandez Cabrera, Rosemarie Albano Kiser, and Celerina Esparas Reyes.
Immigration Services officer Diane Zedde presented the names of eight petitioners, all Filipinos, but only six were present at the ceremony.
Zedde said that Jozilyn Arciaga Baltazar and Marilou Santos Wallace have valid reasons not to be present and will be included in the next naturalization ceremony.
For Madamba, a 45-year-old power inspector at the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., he said he is obviously happy that he is now a U.S. citizen. Madamba first arrived on the island in 1991 and worked as a poker technician. In 1996 he married a Filipino U.S. citizen.
At the ceremony, Chief Judge Manglona welcomed the newest U.S. citizens of “our great country.” Manglona said she fully understands the feeling of new U.S. citizens because she too was not born a U.S. citizen.
“ I welcome you and congratulate you,” Manglona said.
After the six led the pledge of allegiance, a video message from President Barack Obama was played.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to call you a fellow citizen of the United States of America. This is now officially your country, your own to protect, to defend and to serve through active and engaged citizenship,” Obama said.
