GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios said he is still pushing for the establishment of a National Guard in the CNMI while Civilian Aide to the U.S. Secretary of the Army Mike Sablan said the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps may be reactivated at Northern Marianas College.
These were mentioned during the proclamation signing for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Week in the governor’s conference room on Monday.
When ESGR Area Chair Rita A. Sablan, EdD, said she is looking forward to having a National Guard in the CNMI, the governor said the conversation with the Department of Defense is still going on, “and we are still pushing.”
Palacio said he and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang have been working on the establishment of a CNMI National Guard since they were members of the Legislature.
But, he said, the DoD must do an assessment since the CNMI must meet a certain threshold to have its own National Guard.
Rita Sablan said it is important that the CNMI has its own National Guard because “they really support the community in times of disasters and emergencies.”
In the U.S. Congress, the CNMI’s delegate, Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, introduced legislation to establish a National Guard unit for the Northern Marianas in 2011 and 2015.
Mike Sablan, for his part, said there is “another initiative that we are working on, and it is to reactivate the ROTC program at NMC that was closed a few years ago.”
He said he is working with the Secretary of the Army’s office “to see what we have to do to reactivate it at NMC so that our kids can do the ROTC on island rather than go off-island.”