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NMI celebrates Constitution Day
Apatang
Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang urged the public yesterday to remember Constitution Day, Dec. 8, as an occasion to celebrate the 40 years that have passed since the CNMI Constitution was created.
“Our Northern Mariana Islands Constitution is the bedrock of our social, economic, and political development and progress, a growth of our way of life spanning 40 years when our people chose to be self-sustaining and self-governing,” he said in a statement. “In hindsight, we have advanced in every aspect of growth, and today we are proud that we are much better off than in the day before 1977, when our Constitution was ratified by the people of the Northern Mariana Islands, and 1978, when our Constitution took effect.”
Since the holiday falls on a Saturday this year, it will be observed by the CNMI government today.
Apatang noted that the CNMI Constitution serves as the framework for 40 years with which the government has conducted its affairs, relationships, and even immigration to establish businesses and livelihood.
“Respect and fidelity to our Constitution is not a conditional promise anyone of us could make; it is a non-debatable commitment and obligation. It has guided us for 40 years in maintaining a stable system of law and order, check and balance, and furthering the multi-varied beliefs of our now very diverse population,” the mayor said.
