LAST Tuesday July 6, 2010, Filipino Americans Lt. Governor Mike Cruz and Senator Jim Espaldon filed their candidacy with the Guam Election Commission to officially run in the primary election as governor and lt. governor respectively.
Michael W. Cruz is currently the eighth elected Lieutenant Governor of Guam. The son of the Filipinos Miguel de Gracia Cruz and Rosalinda Quinata, he has three children from a previous marriage, Shaunn, Mika’ele and Christine. He is currently married to Jennifer Rosario Cruz, and together they have a daughter, Taylor.
A surgeon with a bachelors degree from Walla Walla College in the state of Washington and an M.D. from Loma Linda University in California, Dr. Cruz is a member of the American Board of Surgery, and the American Society of Breast Surgeons & a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
He has served the United States as a Colonel in the Guam Army National Guard where he has headed the Medical Command. He volunteered for active duty in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as commander of the Rapid Advanced Medical Team, for which he received the Bronze Star Medal. He is also a veteran of Operation Desert Storm.
Prior to his election as Lt. Governor in November 2006, he was a senator in the 28th Guamanian Legislature (2005-2006) and served as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. He was the author of legislation addressing childhood obesity.
In addition to having served as Medical Director of the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority, Cruz co-founded and currently heads the Ayuda Foundation, a charity that focuses on health needs throughout the Pacific.
Among Lt. Governor Cruz’ awards include the 2004 National Governors Award, 2005 Bronze Star Medal, 2009 C-Change Exemplary Comprehensive Cancer Leadership Award, the 2010 American College of Surgeons, and 2010 Surgical Volunteerism Award.
Cruz actively serves along with other lieutenant governors, state Senate presidents and secretaries of state from the United States’ 55 states and territories who are first-in-line of gubernatorial succession in the National Lieutenant Governors Association.
Having declared his candidacy for the 2010 gubernatorial election, Cruz will be in the September 2010 Republican primary. (AJPress)
( Published July 14, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. B3 )
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