Teresita Santos

• Republican (since 2012)
• Independent (before 2012)

Teresita Santos
Member of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate from the Rota 1st district
In office 2015–2022

Teresita Apatang Santos (born October 25, 1959) ^{[1] [2]} is a politician from the Northern Mariana Islands. She previously served as a member of the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, as a member of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate, and as Secretary of the Department of Public Lands.

Legislative career

Santos, a resident of the island of Rota, ^[3] is a member of the Republican Party, and represented the 1st Senatorial District. She was the Legislative Secretary of the Senate. She chaired the committee on Health and Welfare; she is the vice-chair of the committees on Education and Youth Affairs, Fiscal Affairs, and Judiciary, Government, and Law, and was a member of the committees on Rules and Procedure and Executive Appointments and Government Investigations. ^[4] She has spoken of the need to invest more money in the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation to improve its hospital services. ^[5] As of 2017 she was the only woman sitting in the Senate. ^[6] Santos served in the House of Representatives alongside Felicidad Ogumoro and Janet Maratita; when the latter was sworn in for a new term in 2011 the three became the first three women to serve together in the House in the history of the Northern Mariana Islands. At the time she was an independent. ^[7] Her cousin is the former director of the Department of Public Safety on Rota, Felix M. Santos, who challenged her for her seat in the House in 2012. ^[3]

In the 2022 general election, instead of running for reelection to the Senate, Santos ran to be Mayor of Rota. ^[8] Aubrey Manglona Hocog won the election while Santos finished third of five candidates. ^[9]

Secretary of Public Lands

She served as the Secretary of the Department of Public Lands from February 2023 until April 11, 2025. Governor Arnold Palacios appointed former Senator Sixto K. Igisomar to succeed her. ^{[10] [11] [12]}

Electoral history

2009

House of Representative - District 7: Rota (1 seats) ^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent	Teresita Apatang Santos	695	53.50%
	Independent	Ross Hugh Songao Manglona	604	46.50%
Total votes			1,299	100.00%

2012

House of Representative - District 7: Rota (1 seat) ^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Teresita Apatang Santos (incumbent) [a]	882	58.96%
	Independent	Felix Mundo Santos	614	41.04%
Total votes			1,496	100.00%
	Republican hold

2014

Rota 1st Senatorial District (2 seats) ^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Teresita Apatang Santos	786	28.17%
	Republican	Steven King Mesngon	687	24.62%
	Independent	Paul Atalig Manglona	633	22.69%
	Independent	Jovita Maratita Taimanao (incumbent)	492	17.63%
	Independent	Tom Glenn A. Quitugua	192	6.88%
Total votes			2,790	100.00%

2018

Rota 1st Senatorial District (2 seats) ^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent	Teresita Apatang Santos (incumbent)	628	21.55%
	Republican	Victor Borja Hocog	570	19.56%
	Republican	Felix Mundo Santos	540	18.53%
	Independent	Albert Atalig Taitano	442	15.17%
	Independent	Joel Gogue Charfauros	396	13.59%
	Independent	Jovita Maratita Taimanao	338	11.60%
Total votes			2,914	100.00%

2024

Mayor - Rota ^[17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Aubry Manglona Hocog	505	34.95%
	Independent	Harry James Atalig Masga	470	32.53%
	Independent	Teresita Apatang Santos	288	19.93%
	Independent	Magdalena San Nicolas Mesngon	159	11.00%
	Independent	Alfredo Taisacan Taimanao	23	1.59%
Total votes			1,445	100.00%
	Republican hold

Notes

1. Teresita Santos switched her affiliation from Independent to Republican before the elections

References

1. "Inauguration of the Seventeenth Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature" (PDF). Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature. January 11, 2010. p. 30. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
2. Santos, Teresita (March 4, 2022). "Marianas Trench NMS nomination" (PDF). Letter to Kristina Kekuewa. NOAA. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
3. Erediano, Emmanuel T. "Santos vs. Santos on Rota". Marianas Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
4. "Teresita Santos". Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
5. Marianas Variety. "Senator Santos: Let's invest in CHCC". Marianas Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
6. Representation2020.com. "CNMI and Guam - Report: Women still underrepresented in govt - Representation20/20". www.representation2020.com. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
7. "Janet Maratita is sworn into office - Saipan News, Headlines, Events, Ads - Saipan Tribune". www.saipantribune.com. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
8. De La Torre, Ferdie (June 13, 2022). "Santos to run as Rota mayor". Saipan Tribune . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
9. "Official General Election Results Certified on November 11, 2022". Northern Mariana Islands Election Commission. November 11, 2022. Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
10. Erediano, Emmanuel T. (April 7, 2025). "Governor nominates Igisomar as DPL secretary". Marianas Variety . Retrieved April 10, 2025.
11. Erediano, Emmanuel (February 23, 2024). "Former Sen. Santos appointed as DPL chief". Marianas Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
12. Dela Torre, Ferdie (February 14, 2024). "Santos seeks Senate support to enable DPL to tap $1M settlement". Saipan Tribune. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
13. "2009 CNMI General Election Results". Commonwealth Election Commission. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
14. "Commonwealth Election Commission - 2012 Election Results". Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023
15. "Commonwealth Election Commission - Election 2014 Results". Archived from the original on November 30, 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
16. "2018 CNMI General Election Results". Commonwealth Election Commission. Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
17. "2022 Official General Election and Run-Off Results". Commonwealth Election Commission. 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2024-05-09.