People Briefs
People Briefs
Fa'au'uga Su'esu'e Lutu Achica is the newest member of the LBJ Medical Center board of directors after the American Samoa Senate endorsed her nomination. The Immigration Board also has three new members appointed by Governor Togiola Tulafono. They are Asuega Fa'amamata Lauvai, Vaimaona Fa'afetai Ialiva and Florence Saulo. The American Samoa Power Authority also confirmed Steven Felte as a new board member. -- FS
The general manager of Pacific Trading Company on Saipan was elected the new president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce. In the November 2 election at the World Resort Hotel, Charles V. Cepeda was elected president. He replaces Alex Sablan who has been president of the chamber for two years. Sablan was elected vice president; Jay Jones of Triple J Enterprises secretary and Michael Johnson of Deloitte and Touché treasurer. -- FSR
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Ann Marie Muller is the new Banking Commissioner in the Marshall Islands, replacing Alfred Alfred, Jr. who has moved to become the deputy chief of mission at the Marshall Islands Embassy in Japan. Prior to moving to the Banking Commission recently, Muller was assistant secretary for accounting and administration at the Ministry of Finance since 2001. She previously worked for 10 years for the Bank of Hawaii in Majuro.-- GJ
Brian Singh, the former permanent secretary of the Fiji Ministry of Labor, was acquitted November 23 in the High Court of defrauding the government. Singh had been charged with three counts of false pretence. A judge ruled he had no case to answer because the charges "as framed do not create an offence known to Fiji law." Prosecutors had alleged Singh made three official trips overseas and while the government paid for business class airfares, he traveled on economy class tickets and pocketed the difference amounting to over F$22,000. -- RM
Papua New Guinea politician Charlie Benjamin is in trouble again, this time for trying to "hijack" the parliament speaker's chair, during an October 2004 standoff between government and Opposition parliamentarians. The parliamentary privileges committee has ruled that Benjamin's actions were unbecoming of a leader and that he be suspended from sitting in parliament for 90 days. Benjamin was referred to the public prosecutor last year by the Ombudsman Commission for allegedly misusing more than K400,000 (US$124,600) in public funds. -- AR
In the biggest political upset in Koror state election history, Yosi Adachi is the newly elected governor of Koror in Palau. The younger challenger defeated three-term incumbent John Gibbons. The results of the election suggest that voters want change in the leadership and structure of the state government-change that Adachi is supporting in the form of amendments to the state constitution. -- BP
The 4th Conference of the Pacific Community meeting in Palau in November appointed Dr. Jimmie Rodgers as the new Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). From the Solomon Islands, Rodgers has been with SPC since 1996, first as Director of Programs and since 2000 as Senior Deputy Director-General based in Suva. He will replace current Director General Lourdes Pangelinan when she steps down in 2006 after two terms as head of the SPC. -- GJ
Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu in a speech at a business awards in November hinted vaguely that it was time he stepped down. The ailing Tui Vuda, the paramount chief of the vanua of Vuda in Nadi, told family members, it was reported later, that it was time to leave office and return to his traditional duties in Nadi. Ratu Josefa, whose term expires in May, has been president since the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was ousted from office following the 2000 coup. Ratu Josefa's official secretary Rupeni Nacewa says the president has not discussed retiring from public life with him. -- RM
Miss Cook Islands Dorothea George won the recent South Pacific Beauty Pageant in Tonga. Miss Tonga Nancy Maloni was second and current Miss Samoa Falute Vaauli placed second runner-up. -- AT
Ologalei Maualaivao Tetele was born November 23, 1901 a year after the Samoan group was partitioned between the U.S. and Germany. That makes her 104 years old, reputedly the oldest person in Samoa. Ologalei is mother to twelve children and great grandmother to a mini-clan who gathered at the family home on Savai'i Island to celebrate her 104th year. She slept through most of the celebrations. -- AT
Ramoncito Marino has been confirmed as the new Philippines ambassador to Palau. Marino will be replacing Ambassador Leoncio Parungao who had held the post since 1999. Marino was ambassador to Lebanon and Syria from 2003 to 2004. He also serves as ambassador to the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia. -- BP
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SPREP Director |
Kiribati Minister for the Environment Martin Tofinga was recognized as the Regional Champion for the 2005 "Year of Action Against Waste" in the Pacific. The award was issued by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to mark the end of the "Year of Action Against Waste." SPREP Director Asterio Takesy says Tofinga was recognized for championing Kiribati's introduction of an innovative funding system that has overcome considerable barriers to recycling faced by small, isolated Pacific islands. -- BB
Chief Public Defender Masood Karimipour left Saipan in mid-October for a two-year temporary assignment as an advisor to the Ministry of Justice in Afghanistan under a U.S. State Department program. Karimipour has been the chief public defender since 1997 and plans to return to Saipan after his Afghanistan stint. Assistant Public Defender Elisa Long is now serving in an acting capacity. -- FSR
The Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association elected six new board members on November 16. Three of the new board members represent the GHRA Hotelier Chapter: Frank Liepmann, of the Guam Marriott Resort and Spa; Yutaka Maruyama, of the LeoPalace Resort; and Richard Rennie, of the Royal Orchid Guam. All are general managers of their respective properties. Representing the Restaurateur Chapter are Marie Guerrero, vice president and general manager of Planet Hollywood Guam, and Rizk Saad, executive vice president of SandCastle. Oscar Miyashita, managing partner of Ernst and Young accounting firm was elected to represent the Allied Industry Chapter. -- FW
A language arts teacher at Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School in San Roque village has been named the CNMI Teacher of the Year for 2005. Charlotte Camacho bested other teachers nominated in the annual event. William De Witt of the Saipan Southern High School was named first runner-up while Teresita Reyes of Oleai Elementary School came in second. Camacho is a 10-year veteran teacher in the public school system. -- FSR
Nine of the 11-member American Samoa Political Status Study Commission have been appointed to the board charged with reviewing the territory's future political relations with the United States. Appointed by Governor Togiola Tulafono from within the community are: Manu'a district Governor Tufele Li'amatua; former cabinet member Minareta Thompson, former American Samoa Community College official Dr. Trudie Iuli-Sala and current ASCC official Dr. Daniel Aga. House Speaker Matagi M. McMoore appointed Vice Speaker Savali Talavou Ale and Rep. Gaoteote P. Tofau. Senate President Lolo M. Moliga appointed Senators Tuaolo M. Fruean and Aumoeualogo Salanoa. Congressman Faleomavaega Eni's appointment is Senator Fai'ivae A. Galea'i. Still pending are the nominations from the chief justice of American Samoa and the Board of Higher Education. The governor also appointed former American Samoa Congressman Fofo I.F. Sunia as executive director of the commission. -- FS
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Congressman Faleomavaega Eni |
Congressman Faleomavaega Eni has hired Tasi A. Lilio as a senior aide for his Pago Pago district office, following the retirement in October of Dr. Oreta Togafau, who is now working as policy advisor to Governor Togiola Tulafono. Dr. Togafau is the wife of attorney general Sialega Malaetasi Togafau. -- FS
The Fiji national rugby sevens team capped off its year on a high note when it was named International Rugby Board Sevens Team of the Year at the board's awards in Paris in late November. Fiji was crowned sevens world champions in Hong Kong in March and retained the gold medal at the World Games in Germany in June. Waisale Serevi is both captain and coach of the Fiji rugby sevens team. -- RM
A former South Vietnamese Army captain deported in November by the United States for "crimes against humanity" while in a jail in the late 1970s after the Vietnam war ended was accepted by the Marshall Islands. Although initially given only a 30-day visitors visa, Thi Dinh Bui, who was escorted to Majuro by two U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents, said he hopes to make Majuro his home. Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios said helping the U.S. with its request for taking Bui was in keeping with the close relationship that the two countries have through a Compact of Free Association and an action that he hoped would lead to cooperation in other areas. Bui arrived in the U.S. from Vietnam in 1994 as a refugee and gained permanent resident status. Deportation proceedings were begun against him in 2000, after Vietnamese charged him with abusing other prisoners in a "reeducation camp." -- GJ
Former cabinet minister Peri Vaevae Pare, convicted on corruption charges last November, is taking his case to the Court of Appeal. Vaevae Pare was given a one year suspended sentence but his appeal is not likely to be heard until a few months into 2006. He is holding onto his parliamentary seat until after the appeal. -- UKM
IN MEMORIAM
Elias P. Okamura, 70, former deputy director of the Trust Territory Department of Transportation and Communication, passed away at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu on November10. A certified ship captain, Okamura was also the Disaster Control Officer of the Northern Marianas government in the early 1990s and was a special consultant to the president of the Republic of Palau in charge of securing a temporary bridge following the collapse of the Koror-Babeldaob (KB) bridge. Okamura is survived by his wife Johanna, and five grown children. Originally from Palau, Okamura was buried on Saipan where he spent most of his adult life. -- FSR
Professional Tahitian surfer Malik Joyeux died of injuries in early December after wiping out while surfing the famous Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore in Hawaii. Tahitipresse reported that Joyeux had a big career as an international surfer in front of him, having won the Billabong surfing title in 2003 for surfing the largest tube of the year in Tahiti. He reached the quarterfinals of the 2000 Gotcha Tahiti pro international competition. -- SM
Well-known Samoan businessman William Keil passed away after a short illness. Keil is best remembered in Samoa as the very first Pacific Islander to head Morris Hedstrom Samoa, which together with Burns Philp, dominated business in the South Pacific for a long time. Keil is the father of current Minister of Trade and Tourism Joe Keil. -- AT
Former speaker of the Samoa parliament Afamasaga Fatu Vaili passed way in November after a brief illness. He served in parliament from 1987 to 1995. -- AT
Former CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice Ramon G. Villagomez died on November 30 at the Commonwealth Health Center. Villagomez, 56, had been in a coma for about seven years. He was also the former chairman of the Board of Regents of the Northern Marianas College as well as a delegate to the first Constitutional Convention of the CNMI. Villagomez was in private law practice before being tapped by former Governor Pedro P. Tenorio in the mid-1980s as a judge of the CNMI Superior Court. He was then appointed to the three-member Supreme Court before retiring in the mid-1990s and returning to private practice. He is survived by his wife Angela C. Villagomez and six children. -- FSR
Contributors: Fili Sagapolutele, Frank S. Rosario, Giff Johnson, Ricardo Morris, Alex Rheeney, Blaire Phillips, Afamasaga Toleafoa, Batiri Bataua, Frank Whitman, Ulamila Kurai-Marrie and Samantha Magick.
