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ESGR unveils new office
Bishop Ryan P. Jimenez, left, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, center, and Rep. Angel A. Demapan(R-Saipan) right after the bishop blessed the new ESGR office on the second floor of the Saipan Mayor’s Office building Friday. (Erwin Encinares)
The first office in the CNMI of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve opened over Friday with a blessing ceremony presided over by Bishop Ryan P. Jimenez.
In a short ceremony, the Saipan Mayor’s Office held an office blessing for the ESGR office, which is right inside the Saipan Mayor’s Office building.
“This is something that we have been dreaming about,” said ESGR area chair for the CNMI Area Committee Rose Igitol. “Now that we have the office space, courtesy of Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang himself…we now have space to come together and work.”
Igitol noted that the ESGR area committee in the CNMI currently has three staff, including herself. Previously, ESGR meetings were held in their own personal homes.
“It was very difficult [in the past] to come together and meet… Now we are in one area, and so we just come here and meet,” she said.
The new ESGR office is a room on the second floor of the Saipan Mayor’s Office building right next to the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. The room is just enough to house the three staff of the ESGR, complete with its own air conditioning and a reception area.
“It’s actually the mayor’s office that donated the space,” said Igitol, adding that the ESGR did not have the budget to rent an office of its own.
In an interview, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang said that his office is currently working on a memorandum of understanding to make the ESGR office official.
“It’s just to accommodate them so they have a place to work out of,” said Apatang, adding that members of the National Guard and military Reserves now have an office to go to when they need official assistance.
“I always love to work and take care of our troops so that they do not have any problem when they come back from deployment and all that,” said Apatang.
When asked if he is worried about the office being kicked out in case of a change in the mayoral administration after this year’s elections, Apatang said he wasn’t.
“I am sure that whoever is going to be [Saipan mayor] is going to be understanding and their commitment to our soldiers that are deployed and coming back,” he said.
