Superior Court Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona said she was “truly humbled” by the confirmation.“I stayed awake for the vote…with my husband next to me,” Manglona told Variety.
Her family was able to follow the U.S. Senate session through the Internet.
She said she is thankful to President Obama, the U.S. Senate, Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the members of the local Bar Association.
Manglona said she still has to take care of paper work, and her “letter of resignation will be tendered soon.”
Manglona’s appointment will become official once Obama signs her commission.
“There were many calls and visits that are very humbling and the outpouring of support from the various members of the community and from the states as well,” Manglona said.
She said Sablan was the first to notify her that the Senate deferred the confirmation session due to bad weather.
She said she “felt relieved that the confirmation was not completely taken off calendar.”
“I tempered my nervousness by keeping myself busy with work and not focusing on the confirmation,” she told Variety.
Manglona was nominated by Obama upon the recommendation of Sablan last April.
She will succeed Chief Judge Alex R. Munson who retired in February last year.
The Saipan federal court was established by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1977 and became operational in Jan.1978.
Its judge is appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, for a ten-year term.
The first district judge was the Alfred Laureta, who served from 1978 to 1988.
In the same year, Munson was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the Senate.
Munson was nominated for a second ten-year term by President Bill Clinton and was confirmed by the Senate in 1998.
