Tiyan Access Road May Be Closed by FAA

Tiyan residents infuriated at FAA
Dec 20, 2009
by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Tiyan residents have launched a letter campaign outraged by the Federal Aviation Administration's efforts to completely shut down public access through Tiyan. The airport is currently collaborating with the Guam Department of Public Works, the Federal Highway Administration and the FAA to find a win-win solution.

Dozens of Tiyan landowners put pen to paper, expressing their frustration in letters to Guam International Airport Authority Executive Manager Carlos Salas. The landowners are particularly upset about the FAA's insistence that the public be denied access to the new road. The feds have threatened to cut off federal funds unless the access road is closed.

The FAA also warned that GIAA cannot use airport revenues or property for the Tiyan parkway that is supposed to be built and completed by April 2012. The Tiyan Neighborhood Association contends there is no practical reason or basis to prohibit the public from using the new road, saying it's apparent that the "FAA wants to take the airport back and restrict access to locals as though it was still military property."

The Airport's executive manager couldn't detail what plans are in the works for the stalled Tiyan parkway project, but he confirms officials are in discussions to resolve the matter and make it a win-win for everyone. Said Salas, "We want to help and make sure there's public access as well. Our latest collaboration with Public Works and Federal Highway is that the airport is favorably looking at maybe even providing more land to make that possible."

At this point DPW, the FHA, the FAA, and the airport are working on the road alignment and determine where the parkway would be situated. While the FAA previously indicated that GIAA could not use any of its property for the access road, Salas says the airport may end up giving twenty-four acres of land. "Not a change of heart, but look at the parameters that you have to work within," he continued.

"And the parameters are this, that the airport property is strictly for airport use and there are other properties that are available or could be attainable for purposes of the roadway. So let's work with that and see what the airport can do on a give and take situation."

Salas says while discussions are ongoing, he expects the Tiyan parkway will run along East Sunset Boulevard and eventually connect to Route 8 further from south of its current location. He's hopeful an agreement will be reached before the end of the year or by January.

Senator Blas on EIS

Guam Resists Military Colonization

Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Guam Resists Military Colonization
Having No Say When Washington Tries to Increase your Population by 25%
by Ann Wright

The United States and the Chinese governments have some remarkable similarities when it comes to colonization. The Chinese government has sent a huge Han population to inhabit Tibet and overwhelm the Tibetan population, even building the world's highest railway to get people and materials there.

The United States government, with virtually no consultation with the local government and citizens, is increasing the population of its non-voting territory, Guam, by 25%. 8,000 U.S. Marines, their dependents and associated logistics units and personnel-a total of 42,000 new residents-will be moved to the small Pacific island (barely three times the size of Washington, DC) that has a current population of 175,000. The move will have a tremendous impact on the cultural and social identity of the island.

These military forces are being relocated to Guam, in great measure, because of the "Close US Military Bases" campaign organized by citizen activists in Okinawa, Japan. The United States has had a huge military presence there since the end of World War II.

I thought I was reasonably well-informed about America's interests in the Pacific. I had worked as a US diplomat in Micronesia for two years and travelled many times through Guam, a US territory, located an 8 hour flight west of Honolulu.

But earlier this month, in Guam on a study tour sponsored by a coalition of Japanese peace activists spearheaded by CODEPINK-Osaka, Japan, which included a former member of the Japanese Diet (Parliament), I learned new aspects of the decision to relocate this large number of U.S. military to Guam.

Guam was first colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s, became a US colony in 1898, a war-trophy from the Spanish-American war and served as a stopover for ships travelling to the Philippines. During World War II, Guam was attacked and occupied by Japan on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. American citizens living on the island had been evacuated by the United States government before the attack, but the indigenous Chamorro population was left behind. During the 31 months of Japanese occupation, the Chamorros endured forced labor, concentration camps, forced prostitution, rape and execution by the Japanese military. The United States military returned three and one-half years later on July 21, 1944 to retake Guam.

In 1950, Guam was made an "unincorporated territory" of the United States by a US Congressional act and residents were given US as one of 16 "non-self governing territories" left in the world.

Lands were taken after World War II from the native Chamorro population without compensation by the US military to construct major air and naval bases which the US military still uses. Currently, there are 3,000 US Air Force and 2,000 US Navy personnel and 1,000 employees of other federal security agencies assigned to Guam.

Three Guam legislators told us that the Guam government has not been properly consulted in the discussions between the US and Japanese governments on the relocation of the large US Marine force. Guam officials have been given little firm information about the military expansion plans. They are very concerned about the impact of further militarization of their island as its major income is provided by hundreds of thousands of Japanese tourists who visit the tropical island annually.

They are disturbed by rumors of proposed forced condemnation of another 950 acres of land owned by members of the native Chamorro population for a live fire range for the incoming Marines. Residues of Agent Orange left from the Vietnam War and other toxic wastes from the military bases, plus the possibility that artillery shells and other munitions made from depleted uranium will be used on their island, are all sources of concern for the people of Guam.

In order to get the 8,000 US Marines out of Okinawa, the Japanese government is paying $6 billion to the US government for their relocation. Guam officials are concerned that not enough of the relocation funds will be made available for the large infrastructure improvements that will be needed for the island's roads, water, sewage and electrical systems as it tries to support a 25% increase in population. They feel the military will take care of its bases but may leave the local population struggling with the new infrastructure problems created by the large number of military personnel.

The Japanese people, too, are in the dark about the details of the billions of dollars they will pay the US government to have US forces leave Japan. Japanese members of our delegation were shocked when they learned from local Guam activists that the relocation budget calls for the Japanese government to pay $650,000 for the construction of each new house on the base, while Guam activists told us the cost of a middle class home on Guam is around $250,000. The Japanese delegation was greatly concerned that their government is funding such inflated projects and is going to raise the budget with Japanese Diet members when they return to Japan.

Of concern to the Guam business community is consideration by US House of Representatives law makers to give Japanese contractors the same access as American firms to bidding on contracts worth more than $2.5 billion in upcoming US military construction projects on Guam. Apparently, the Japanese government, like the US government, likes to have its commercial firms benefit from government aid projects it is funding "overseas." With Japan's $6 billion contribution to the $10 billion cost of relocating the Marines, Japan wants some of that money returned to Japan through construction contracts on the Guam infrastructure projects.

Many Guam officials and a large number of Guam citizens are deeply concerned about the cultural, economic and security impact of the dramatic increase in population and militarization of their island the relocation would present. The current cultural divide of those living in relative luxury inside the bases with better housing, schools and services has been a source of friction between the US military and the local population over the years.

Guam officials said that they too have been perturbed about the extraordinarily high expenditures on US military base facilities, when the Government of Guam is strapped financially. The officials said they were amazed and horrified when they learned that the Air Force recently built an on-base animal kennel for $27 million, with each animal space costing $100,000, when locally, the government is unable to provide sufficient infrastructure for its citizens, much less animals.

Professors and students at the University of Guam expressed concern that there will be a sharp increase in sexual assault and rape on the island due to the relocation of US Marines. They believe one of the reasons the Japanese government finally was able to get the US government to move some military forces out of Okinawa was because of major citizen mobilizations that occurred in response to rapes by US military personnel.

In 2008, the US Ambassador to Japan had to fly to Okinawa to give his apologies for the rape of a 14 year old girl by a US Marine. The US military forces on Okinawa had a 3 day stand-down for "reflection" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to express her "regrets" to the Japanese Prime Minister "for the terrible incident that happened in Okinawa... we are concerned for the well-being of the young girl and her family."

In April, 2008, U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott, 38, who had been in the Marines 18 years, was charged with the February 10, 2008, rape of 14 year old girl, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping.

On May 17, 2008, Hadnott was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct and the four other charges were dropped. Hadnott was sentenced to four years in prison, but will only serve a maximum of three years in prison due to a pretrial agreement that suspended the fourth year of the sentence. He was reduced to private and given a dishonorable discharge from the US Marines.

The rape accusation against Hadnott stirred memories of a brutal rape more than a decade ago and triggered outrage across Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Hadnott's actions were "unforgivable."

There are US Congressional stirrings of concern about the relocation of the Marines to Guam. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee chair Ike Skelton has raised concerns about the size, scope and cost of the move to Guam. "At over $10 billion (two and one-half times the initial cost estimate of $4 billion), it is an enormous project, and I am concerned that the thinking behind it is not yet sufficiently mature," Skelton said at a recent Congressional hearing. "We need to do this, but it needs to be done right."

In a challenge to US military "forward deployment" strategy in Asia and the Pacific, Guam activists strongly feel the US military should relocate large forces to the mainland of the US where there presence can be better absorbed by the greater populations and existing large military bases, rather than to their small Pacific island.

However, the US federal government seldom takes into account local feelings about their projects, particularly military projects in a region far removed from the Washington power center.

Guam activists want their voices heard and respected and not to be treated as merely residents of a colony of the United States.

Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com)

Things We Must Remember

ben’s Pen: The things we remember today
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 03:14 by Sen. Ben Pangelinan
Marianas Variety


EACH year, for the past 65 years, this day rolls around and we remember.

At Sumay, we remember the place where our parents made their homes and buried their parents, brothers, sisters and family. We mark this with a mass at the Sumay cemetery; not for those buried there who died during the war, but those buried there before they took the land away and now need permission to return to honor and pay respect at that hallowed place.

At Fena, we remember the pain and the memories, and for some the unspeakable guilt they carry with them for surviving, while others did not, the brutality and atrocity of the enemy-- an enemy not of our own making.

At Manengon, we remember the suffering of the children left to the care of young new mothers with babies exposed to the risk of disease and sickness, because a fire could not be built to boil water from the river, the same river they used to wash clothes and bathe in.

We remember mothers, wives and children who watched husbands, brothers and fathers, walk away from the camp, obedient to the enemy’s order to come with them. And they never looked back. The wives, mothers and children watched never knowing; if the husbands, brothers and fathers did not obey, it would be they who would be beaten or killed.

At Tinta and Faha, we remember the deaths and the fact that our people knew their fate as they were forced into the caves. The explosion of the grenades and the sound of bayonets piercing flesh, looking for the kill left unfinished by the force of the explosion and the shrapnel as clear today as it was 65 years ago.

And we remember the brave men of the Malesso rebellion, those who knew that no amount of cooperation or compliance with the enemy’s orders would spare their innocent loved ones pain or death, who summoned the courage, and who rose up to overpower the enemy. Facing death, they fought and some lost their lives, and their sacrifice and gallantry saved the lives of countless loved ones.

And we remember, the over 45 strong young Chamorro men found at Chi gi’an, with their hands tied behind their backs and be-headed, after they carried the enemy’s provisions to Yigo for their last stand.

Each year, for the past 65 years, this day rolls around and we celebrate.

We celebrate liberation from the hands of a brutal enemy. We celebrate the return of the Americans, who say they gave us democracy and self-government. And they stayed, a kind and generous occupier, but an occupier nonetheless.

Last year, this day rolled around and amidst the remembrance and the celebration we chose to actively embrace a full democracy and freedom as a people. We chose to act to bring about decolonization, move forward our destiny, and fulfill our human right to self-determination.

It is a right that a liberator does not bestow to the liberated. It is a right that a just and moral authority recognizes belongs to those peoples denied such right.

It is a right that can, only by the action of those who have yet to exercise such right, bring about real freedoms and true liberation.

Abiba self-determination! Biba Liberation!

War Stories from the Tip of the Spear

War Stories and the Chamorus: journalism and militarization on the tip of the spear.
By Beau Hodai
Special to News From Indian Country 7-09
The weight of occupation and corporate media self-censorship

It was a typical day in the jungle, though more overcast than the constant island diet of endless blue skies and fluffy white clouds; humid-- drizzling rain that would materialize from the sticky mist in the air, a breeze stirring through breadfruit and banana leaves.

I was at the family home of Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Anthony Carbullido, Jr., whom the Department of Defense had recently listed among the dead to be routed back from Afghanistan to Guam through Dover, Delaware-- the victim of an improvised explosive device.

Family and friends of the corpsman were seated in rows of folding chairs under a glowing green fiberglass awning reciting the rosary, “may eternal peace and rest be unto Tony…” a dull, sleepy drone mixed with the static rain.

I was seated in one of the chairs, as were my photographer and his girlfriend. To the side of the house, under a separate awning, large tables were being set with large trays of traditional Chamorro food. A pit-bull puppy pawed at the kitchen door, leaving streaks of red clay as more family members prepared food inside.

I had arrived on Guam less than a month before to work for the island’s largest newspaper, the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News. My assigned beat was “health and environment,” and while the Carbullido rosary service did not exactly fall under the banner of that beat, it was assigned to me as one of my co-workers, who was usually assigned to rosaries and military funerals, had said he needed a break from covering such functions, as the process of extracting a story from a grieving mother is-- at best-- draining.

In the darkened living room of the family home I was made to understand this sentiment all too well as I held my little recorder in the mother’s face and asked her how she felt about her son’s death.

Aurora Carbuliido, the sailor’s mother, said that her son’s death was the realization of her fears as a mother of a sailor involved in active duty.

“I’ve seen past pictures and past articles (of troops who have died in combat) and it scared me because my son is over there,” she said.

“This is a hard situation to be in,” his father said. “It’s hard to believe that this is happening to us.” (From: “Family, friends mourn sailor: Acting governor orders flags to half-staff,” Pacific Daily News, August 9, 2008).

It should be noted that the idea that what a person is quoted as saying in a newspaper is accurate is not necessarily accurate; as the photographer haggled with the father about his desire not to be photographed, Mrs. Carbuillido spoke of her son and her fears in the present-tense… “and it scares me because my son is over there.” The idea that they would be shoveling clay into their son’s face sometime in the weeks to come had not yet hit home.

There had been a steady succession of these stories, as Cabullido was the 17th casualty from Guam and the 29th from the northern Marianas region since the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.

This succession has given Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, with a population of under 300,000, the dubious honor of being the region of the United States with the highest number per capita of such casualties.

This is comparable to a city the size of Spokane taking the same blow in the “War on Terror,” but with one large difference: in the insular world of Micronesia, everybody is related in one way or another to everyone else. Few get out. It is because of this that one family’s pain ripples out through the entire community.

A brief history of Guam to bring you to this point:

Guam, the northern-most island of the Marianas Archipelago, known to the Chamorus who occupied it as Guahan, was dubbed the “Island of Thieves” by Ferdinand Magellan when a group of natives attempted to steal one of his ships during his 1521 landing.

In 1668, the Jesuit Padre San Vitores, began colonization of the island for the Spanish crown.

San Vitores was promptly killed in 1672 by a Chamoru chief named Matapang for baptizing his daughter without permission. Matapang was eventually killed in turn.

At the time of Spanish colonization, there were 175,000 Chamorus on Guahan; 100 years into colonization, the population had dwindled to 1,500.

Following the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the island to U.S. forces in 1898, at which time it served as a small military outpost.

In 1941, Japanese forces invaded the island. Fortunately, U.S. citizens on the island were evacuated prior to the occupation. Unfortunately, all Chamorus were left behind to face three years of forced labor and life in concentration camps around the island. A further 300 Chamorus died during this period. Scars from this period can be found throughout the island in the form of old munitions and tunnels bored though hillsides by Chamoru slave labor for the Japanese.

On July 21, 1944, the U.S. Marines retook the island in the bloody Battle of Guam. Today, Liberation Day warrants a week-long barbeque party along the island’s main drag, Marine Corps Drive, in the capital of Hagatna.

In 1950 the Guam Legislature passed the Organic Act, which laid the foundation for local government as it is now and established Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Today, Catholicism extends to every facet of life on-island and the Archdiocese of Hagatna holds heavy political sway. The word “Matapang,” which, at the time of San Vitores’ death meant “to be made pure by cleansing,” means “silly” or “foolish” in modern Chamorro, which is a polyglot of English, Spanish and Chamoru.

The word Guahan, which meant “we have”, has long since been replaced by the bastardized “Guam,” which means nothing; and every day the most mournful cacophony I have ever heard rings out of the synth bells atop the Basilica of the Archdiocese of Hagatna, echoing off the cliffs and out into the Philippine Sea like a funereal music box opened for a dead child.

At present, a full third of the island’s land mass of 209 square miles is occupied by either Andersen Air Force base or U.S. Naval Base Guam. Guam is often proudly referred to as the “tip of the spear” for U.S. military operations, as it is the furthest military outpost from the U.S. mainland. Many bumper stickers also proclaim: “Guam: where America’s day begins,” or “SPAM!”

Guam has no exports, virtually no agricultural production (due in large part to military contamination of the land and water—much of this contamination has been attributed to nuclear weapons testing that took place in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1962, the effects of which were documented in a 2005 report filed by the National Research Council under the National Academies of Science. Because of this, legislation has been introduced repeatedly—and with little success—by Guam Congressional Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo to include the territory in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) and no other line of production. Outside of federal subsidies, the main source of revenue on-island is in the trade of Japanese tourist dollars—a revenue stream that has been dwindling in recent years.

This dead-end environment leaves the military as the only viable option for many young people looking to get out.

Following the recitation of the rosary, while waiting to interview Carbullido’s parents, I spoke with several of his friends, his siblings and some of his cousins.

As I was speaking to his teenage brother, one of his cousins joined us.

“What do you think? Still planning on joining up?” the brother asked the cousin, a man in his early twenties clutching a pale blue Bud Lite can.

“Yeah,” he said, raising the can and tilting his head.

“This doesn’t change your mind at all?” asked the brother.

No, the cousin replied; there really wasn’t much other choice for him—no other way out, or up-- even if it meant coming back in a box.

Unfortunately for those whose families could not afford private school tuition or cannot afford higher education and who are products of the Guam Public School System, even the military option appears to be closing on them.

A recruiter for the Guam Army National Guard told me in an interview at the time that, while he has seen an increase in interest in military service in the region, increasing numbers of young people educated on the island have been unable to pass the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Test.

GPSS is, by far, the GovGuam line agency beset by the most demons—which is considerable, given that GovGuam could be likened to a boondoggle of contemptuous, incompetent snakes, each trying to bight the other’s head off in the perennial battle over the territory’s small annual budget.

Last year the office of the Guam Attorney General closed down several of the system’s schools, citing exposure of students to raw sewage, asbestos and fire hazards.


All but one of the schools have been reopened to date, but the department has still been unable to fill its staffing needs, students still continue to perform well below national standards and at a 2008 budget hearing a GPSS employee told the Guam Legislature that teachers in the system actually had a higher absenteeism rate than students.

But, even if enlistment is not an option, many still see the Department of Defense as Guam’s Savior.

In 2006, the DoD announced plans to relocate some 5,000 Marines and their dependents from the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa to a new to-be-built base on Guam.

The estimated impact of the shift, or “military buildup,” as it is commonly referred to, when considering the number of workers to fill jobs created by the need to expand both civilian and military infrastructure, translates to at least a twenty percent population boom over the course of a few years, set to begin (tentatively) in 2010. Some believe that a twenty percent population increase is a conservative estimate and set the number much higher.

Many members of the Guam business community and government are bedazzled by what they anticipate to be a cornucopia of new possibilities in profit and employment offered through the expansion.

Many of these dazzled individuals are the same ones who advertize in, and thereby underwrite, the island’s news media, chief of which is the same Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News that I covered the Carbullido rosary for.

When my editor changed Aurora Carbullido’s quote, he also buried it at the back of the article. He had placed canned statements from the island’s acting governor and congressional representative before not just statements from the grieving mother, but of all the corpsman’s family members.

“We extend our sympathies and prayers to all his family, friends and loved ones,” said Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo…

“Anthony will rest in the hearts and minds of a grateful people humbled by his ultimate sacrifice,” said Acting Governor Mike Cruz in a statement yesterday. “I have ordered all government… agencies to fly flags at half-staff in honor of…”

This same editor had lectured me on previous occasions about putting the statements of “real people” above whatever hollow canned crap you may get from the desk of a politician. This rule apparently did not apply to cases involving a military death.

Cases when the rule did apply, by PDN/Gannett standards, were when you’d be handed a press release on some banal item, such as “Healthy Snack Food Month,” or “Infant Automobile Safety Awareness Month,” from some ad hoc task force. You’d then be given your orders to go over to the shopping center down the block, get three “reactions” from “real people,” then march back to the newsroom and churn out six to eight inches of copy by combining all or parts of the press release with the quotes.

That is Gannett journalism: the best in fast food, bulleted coverage—as pioneered by U.S.A Today.

My theory then, as this editor in the most gently condescending tones, explained the role of “real people” to me, is the same as it is now in hindsight; Aurora Carbullido’s reaction was too real. It was the visceral reaction of a shocked mind to an inconceivable pain. And this pain was brought about by involvement with the Department of Defense, the same DoD that so many underwriters looked on as a messiah that would finally put them on the map. This is why the quote of a grieving mother was altered and buried.

The statement that journalism at such a paper is only an incidental byproduct that suffers from this ad-driven editorial policy could be considered libelous if—for one, it was not true—or if it was not the Gannett modus operandi by definition:

The company was started by Frank Ernest Gannett, who in 1906 began buying small newspapers in New York state...

... These newspapers were usually the only ones published in their city and so could be run very profitably. The company’s growth was further spurred by the attention it paid to advertising and circulation and by its tight control of costs...

…This pattern of buying up all the newspapers in an area, slashing subscription rates to levels which (according to critics) only a national conglomerate could sustain, and then raising advertising rates once control over the local market had been secured brought Gannett severe criticism as well as lawsuits. Smaller community and privately owned newspapers have charged the media giant with predatory practices and violations of antitrust laws. Not helping Gannett’s image was the frank admission of brash business tactics by former Gannett chairman Allen Neuharth in his autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B. (1989). (From, “Gannett Co., Inc.” as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009).

So it should have been no surprise when the PDN refused to cover any story outlining the long shadow of rape and assault allegations that accompanied the history of Marines stationed in Okinawa and whose arrival was being staged on Guam.

The same co-worker who had declined to cover the rosary and myself had been pressing our editors to do a story on this history, as there had been virtually no coverage of it in Guam media to that point.

Nothing ever came of it; each day we logged on to the program that contained the daily budget and found that the item had either been pushed back or removed entirely.

Eventually, unable to stomach their editorial policy any longer, I jumped ship and went to work for the PDN’s only competition, the Marianas Variety.

One day my old co-worker said he had given up trying to get the story into the PDN following an especially heated exchange between himself and the managing editor on the subject of the Okinawa Marines story in which he said the editor had indignantly exclaimed, “I have friends and family in the military!”

Military censorship

I had been holding the story up to that point out of respect for my friend, but on hearing that he had given up trying to run it in the PDN, I decided to run with it.

I set out to get some information on the allegations from the Navy and the Joint Guam Program Office, which had been set up by the DoD to act as a civilian-military liaison to pave the way for the Marines. It seemed that once the Navy had figured out I was going to write a critical article, my phone calls and emails went unanswered.

The Variety finally ran an article—despite lack of cooperation on the part of the Navy—in November highlighting the grave concerns of many Guam senators over the violent history of the Marines in Okinawa.

At about that time the Navy’s public information officer met with the Variety’s general operations manager, saying that I was harassing him and that he thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. He said the Navy did not keep any records of allegations against its service members and suspected that I had not done my research.

Given the Navy’s reticence on the issue, I cited numbers directly from the Okinawa prefecture government website, as well as data compiled by Japanese activist groups:

“A report filed this year by an activist group, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, documented over 400 alleged cases of rape, abduction, assault, murder and other forms of abuse committed by U.S. forces in Japan from the period of their post-war occupation to the present.”(“Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 1” Marianas Variety, October 30, 2008)

“(T)here have been more than 5,076 cases of crime caused by the SOFA (Service of Forces Agreement) status people since the reversion of Okinawa to mainland Japan (1972). This number includes 531 cases of brutal crimes and 955 cases of assaults. Thus, there is fear amongst the people of Okinawa as to whether or not security for their daily lives can be maintained and whether their property can be preserved."(From “Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 2,” Marianas Variety, November 7, 2008—as quoted directly from the website of the government of the Okinawa Prefecture.)

In December, following the story on the Okinawa Marines, I wrote an article for the Variety entitled “DoD’s ‘mystery’ project puzzles Guam officials,” which examined a tip I had received that JGPO was looking to convert about 650 acres currently belonging to the Chamorro Land Trust Commission and 250 acres belonging to the Ancestral Lands Commission—which was currently occupied by Guam International Raceway-- into a firing range.

On January 15, Variety reporter and editor, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, wrote a follow-up article, based on a written statement from JGPO Operations Director, Lt. Col. Rudy Kube, confirming the suspicions.

On April 28, the Variety received payment from JGPO for their role as a ‘watchdog’ paper when Variety reporters were barred from attending the “Guam Industry Forum III,” while all other media outlets on-island were granted access.

Variety reporter, Jennifer Naylor Gesick, wrote:

Onsite industry forum personnel notified the reporting staff that the ban was on a “federal level” and was issued as a “government order” from U.S. Marine Corp Capt. Neil Ruggiero with the Joint Guam Project Office...”

The ban was in effect in all venues, as confirmed by Variety reporters in the field. Press passes were printed for every media company on island, except for the Variety...

... Ruggiero argued that Variety could have attended the event as a business if the publishers had registered with the forum.

“Marianas Variety was given the same opportunity as anyone else, they just chose not to be paying registrants, [Pacific Daily News] chose to pay and they were allowed access,” he said...

...However, any media covering the event was allowed in free.

In response to claims of a violation of the freedom of the press in restricting access to the forum, Ruggiero responded that “the press who only stays one session is allowed in free.” That accommodation was not extended to the Variety.

Ruggiero also said that a Variety columnist was given access to represent the paper.

Variety columnist Jayne Flores confirmed that she was given a pass, but Ruggiero later said, “I told her she could not come as Marianas Variety or write any news for them.”

(From “Variety banned by JGPO,” Marianas Variety, April 29, 2009)

Gesick went on to quote Ruggiero, who is the public information officer for JGPO, as saying that the ban on Variety reporters was in effect because he felt part of Kube’s statement had been published out of context, although he did not challenge the veracity of the story.

Despite this lack of cooperation with media outlets willing to report any story critical of the DoD’s plans for the island, events in which the public have been able to ask questions of those involved with the proposed buildup or voice their concerns have drawn large crowds.

The large turnout at such forums suggests that those who are concerned for their island’s future in light of such weighty developments are not marginal or fringe groups as the dismissive attitudes of the DoD and the PDN would suggest.

At a forum held in November at the University of Guam, panellists from both the Civilian-Military Task Force, which works under the auspices of the Office of the Governor with JGPO, as well as members of the community working toward Guam’s self-determination stated both their progress and concerns with the buildup.

Panelist Mike Bevacqua of Famoksaiyan said every resident of Guam—regardless of their position on the buildup—needs to realize that the buildup will affect them personally. He encouraged residents to take a more proactive role in the course of their and Guam’s future.

“It is taking place because we are America, and it’s taking place because we’re not. It is not only something that takes place because of our geographic position, but our colonial status as well...”

“...It is also taking place because we are one of the few American communities where a unilateral announcement by the DOD that it intends to drastically affect life in your community and cause a population increase of 34 percent is met with excitement, celebration and a frightening lack of questioning...”

“...and this military buildup is predicated on the fact that you live in a colony and you can be treated as an object for the subject of the United States, as a weapon of the warrior of the United States military. This is the United States military sharpening the tip of its spear.”

(“Military buildup forum draws huge crowd,” Marianas Variety, November 20, 2008)

Support Bill 66

Support Bill 66
Thursday, 09 July 2009
Letter to the Editor
The Marianas Variety
by Scott "Taisapit" Knudson

DEAR people of Guam, it is your right under the 3rd amendment of the United States Constitution to approve or deny the peacetime transfer of military personnel to our island. Thus, it is your right to approve or deny the possible transfer of 8,000 Marines and other personnel from Okinawa to Guam.

This island is divided as to whether it should be allowed or not. Our leaders appear to generally support it because they are chasing $$, but this transfer will have such a large-scale and long-lasting impact on our island’s economy, population, environment, and quality of life that it demands approval by the people en masse.

Bill 66, submitted by Senator BJ Cruz, is currently under consideration at the legislature. It calls for an island-wide referendum, within 90 days of passage, with two questions being put before the people:

1. Do you approve the transfer of these military personnel?
2.Do you approve the lease of Chamoru Land Trust lands to the U.S. military?

This bill is the only bill currently under consideration that would mandate that the military transfer – and, by extension, its associated construction build-up – be put to vote before the people. For that reason, I am calling upon all the citizens of Guahan to show up at the public hearing at the legislature, which will take place on Thursday, July 16 at 4:00 p.m. There they will be free to express opinions and ask questions.

Regardless of whether one supports or opposes the build-up, it is absolutely essential to our dignity that the matter be put to vote before the people. The current intention of the Pentagon is to triple the military presence on island – from around 15,000 to about 40,000 – without even asking us, but merely by tossing money at us and relying on our leaders’ complacency. That’s called colonialism.

If we are ever to escape our subject status and achieve the dignity and equality that we deserve as U.S. citizens and human beings, we must exert our democratic rights under the constitution. That means telling the Pentagon that they have to check with us first before doing what they please.

So please, people of Guam, come to the legislature on July 16 and show support for democracy and human rights. Support the demand for an island-wide referendum.

Fanogue Taotao Guahan!

No Federal Government Land Condemnations in Eastern Guam

Federal government will not condemn eastern Guam property
By Sabrina Salas Matanane
Published Jun 22, 2009
KUAM News

200 landowners along the eastern coast of Guam can breathe a sigh of relief now that the feds will not be condemning their property. Property owners began complaining when they received letters from the Navy to conduct land surveys on their property.

Senator Judi Guthertz (D), who chairs the Committee on Guam's Military Buildup, says she's received assurances from the Joint Guam Program Office that the Navy's survey will strictly be used as a study to determine potential environmental impacts to future military activities on Guam. "I wanted them to reiterate in writing that they have no intention of condemning land and that this is strictly voluntary on the part of the landowners that will not be forced. If they don't want to do it, they don't have to do it. And if they do agree, the results of the survey will be made available to them," she told KUAM News.

Guthertz encourages landowners who do not wish to participate in the land surveys to make their intentions known, but reminds those that do, will have access to the data about their respective properties to include what cultural and natural resources they possess and other pertinent land information.

GovGuam Agencies Owe $800,000 in Back Rent

Agencies owe $800k in back rent
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
June 22, 2009

The Guam Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Public Health and Social Services owe more than $800,000 in back rent to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission, according to the commission -- money that is supposed to be put into a trust to benefit ancestral landowners.

The two agencies use office space in former military buildings on Tiyan that now are part of the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission inventory. The property licensed to the agencies is former Spanish crown land, which means there are no original owners to claim it.

The commission, which admittedly has little experience leasing property, last month turned the matter over to the Guam Economic Development Authority for collection. At least one of the agencies is disputing the amount owed.

GEDA, which has experience leasing government land, since 2007 has been helping the commission lease Spanish crown land to generate money for the landowner's trust. It did not negotiate the licenses with Public Health and Guam EPA.

At the end of last year, the landowner's trust held $397,657, according to a financial statement prepared by the commission. That money is supposed to compensate ancestral landowners or their heirs if their property was returned by the federal government but still is being held by the local government.

Public Health, which uses the Tiyan building for its Women, Infants and Children program, owes the commission much more than that, according to an invoice prepared by GEDA -- $432,000.

And Guam EPA owes the commission $371,278, according to a GEDA invoice.

The two agencies each are using 8,000 square feet of space, which requires them to pay $8,000 per month, according to their licensing agreements -- payments that started in late 2004.

That means each agency should have paid $480,000 by now, according to the GEDA invoices, but Public Health has paid only $48,000 and Guam EPA has paid only $108,721.10.

Guam EPA Administrator Lorilee Crisostomo said her agency disputes the amount owed.

She said rental payments were withheld years ago because of disparities in the way different agencies were being charged for the use of Ancestral Lands property.

According to a 2006 audit by the Office of the Public Auditor, Guam EPA and Public Health were being asked to pay thousands of dollars a month to use the land while the Guam Police Department and Guam Fire Department, which were using more land, were not being charged at all.

"They are only pushing us because we are federally funded," Crisostomo said.

She said Guam EPA already has paid what it owes for past years and it only owes money for the current year.

Crisostomo said Guam EPA cannot legally pay any other past amounts without permission from lawmakers.

Guam EPA also uses an airport-owned building on Tiyan for its administrative offices, but Crisostomo said the airport does not charge any rent. Guam EPA is required to maintain the property in lieu of rent, she said.

In contrast, she said the Ancestral Lands Commission is charging Guam EPA thousands of dollars a month for a building Ancestral Lands does not maintain.

Public Health Director J. Peter Roberto did not return a call for comment.

Tiyan Landowners Concerned About Being Trumped by the Military

Tiyan landowners concerned about getting trumped by military
By John Davis
Published May 8, 2009
KUAM

Tiyan landowners have negotiated a land exchange with the government after 13 hectares was taken for use by the Guam International Airport Authority and well on their way to determining a methodology on how ancestral lands will be divided. So far, the Tiyan Land Exchange Task Force has ensured properties they are looking at have proper easements for infrastructure to be installed.

And landowners are now concerned they'll never get the land exchange because the U.S. military is also looking at using the same parcels for a firing ranges and housing areas.

At the old Federal Aviation Administration, there's over 400 acres of land the land exchange task force is already looking at plotting and dividing for landowners owed smaller and medium sized lots. Tiyan Land Exchange Task Force chairperson Benny Crawford says with military land on both southern and northern boundaries, the feds want to use the old FAA property not as a firing range, but as a housing area.

"Being a retired military myself is they're looking at this land because it's a breach on their security. It's open and they want to close that gap again and I think that's the main purpose," he explained. "An option was to put some ranges up on the Finegayan area with the safety zones extending out into the water, the feedback we got, studies revealed that that would have a potentially negative impact on the people of Guam because it extends out into recreational waters, the double reefs out there."

Those who stand to receive larger portions of land via the land exchange will have their plots in the Marbou command sea land near Anderson South where there is 390 acres of land that can be used for the land swap. The problem? Joint Guam Program Office executive forward director, David Bice says the military plans to use that property as well.

"The planners had looked on the eastern side of Andersen South, Route 15 we call it, and there is some public and some private lands over there where the safety zones go out into the rather choppy waters on the windward side there and that would have less negative impact on the people," said Bice.

Although Bice says no decisions have been made on the use of local government land for the housing area and firing ranges, Crawford says the feds are doing a pretty good job of ignoring his calls. "I don't even know if they're aware of the Tiyan landowners. I've tried to contact this guy Capt. Ruggerio, whatever his name is the public information officer they've never returned my call. I've tried to call a Master Sergeant down there they never return my call, I just want to let them know there's such a task force," he said.

Next week, Crawford will meet with Senator Ben Pangelinan, the Governor and Lt. Governor and hopefully JGPO officials to sign a resolution to set aside the ALC land for Tiyan landowners. In the meantime, landowners will meet tomorrow at the Christ Bible Fellowship building in Tamuning at 1pm.

DOD Wants CLT Property

DoD eyeing Chamorro Land Trust property
KUAM News
By Clynt Ridgell
12/6/08

While most of the island is not a party to the specifics regarding the U.S. Department of Defense's plans to buildup the military on Guam, it's apparent now that the governor too has been left in the dark. In an interview with KUAM News Felix Camacho revealed a major decision being crafted without the input of Guam's highest elected leader.

What's even more disturbing is that this decision involves land.

Governor Camacho is making it clear that he and the people of Guam need a seat at the table when the feds plan the immense military buildup that will bring an estimated 40,000 new people to the island. "As decisions are made, we are simply advised of it not consultedm" he shared. One of these decisions that has sparked the governor to speak out is related to a very touchy subject on Guam.

He continued, "The question was asked will there be sufficient lands for this endeavor. They said, 'Absolutely, we have enough land in our inventory and within our footprint on Guam to make this a success'. I believe decisions are now being made that they need to acquire more land and this would have to be to accommodate the firing range."

The DoD and the Joint Guam Program Office officials have all said repeatedly that they would not need additional lands for the buildup the governor now says they are eyeing some Government of Guam property that is supposed to be used by the island's indigenous people.

"They would like to consolidate their property up north and have one contiguous operation we certainly have lands in between that that are Chamorro Land Trust lands," said Camacho.

The governor further says that he wants to protect the assets of the people, adding that giving additional land to the feds is something that shouldn't be done without first consulting the people. But it's not only the land issue that the governor has a problem with he's concerned about the lack of funding needed to beef up the island's infrastructure. "Guam does not have the resources nor do we have the capacity either financially or personally to build our infrastructure to the level that we must," he told KUAM News.

This need for a rapid buildup of infrastructure is due to the rapid buildup of the military one in which our population will also rapidly increase by over 20%. The governor says although the feds have instructed GovGuam to get with different federal agencies like the EPA, the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Transportation and others. Only one of them have offered a helping hand.

"We have gone to Office of Management and Budget; we have made our case we've requested for monies in 2010. I've not seen anything come out of it. In fact, the only agency that came to bat for us is the Department of the Interior, which requested roughly $168 million, but every other agency failed to do so."

The governor says he understands that this buildup may be the way that DoD operates, but he also says that if they want to maintain goodwill, Guam needs a voice. "We as an unincorporated territory with no voice and no vote in Congress would be first on the chopping block when it comes to budget," Camacho said. "So where is the support for Guam where is this commitment other than verbal?"

Camacho still believes that this move can be beneficial to Guam it's just a matter of getting the finances necessary to ensure that the island's people are not overburdened. "There's a change in administration. I'm hoping there will be a change in leadership. I think that JGPO, however well intentioned they, are doesn't have enough fire power to get this thing going," the governor concluded. "I don't believe they have enough resources committed to it because it is a major initiative it is a major undertaking and between the DoD and all the other agencies.

"They are going to have to get their act together."

First Our Land, Now Our Ocean

ben's Pen: First our land, now our ocean
28 October 2008
by Sen. Ben Pangelinan
Guam Variety News

First they liberated us from the Japanese. It was a brutal occupation where lives were lost and the people suffered tremendously at the hands of the oppressors and occupiers.

For this the people were eternally grateful and when they said they needed our lands to ensure that such an occupation would never occur again in our lifetime, willingly, a grateful generation surrendered up the lands.

For most of that grateful generation, time is now eternal. They have passed from this earth and are now in a place of eternal rest.

Those remaining behind have seen the truth, no longer colored with gratefulness. The treatment and injustices have erased the goodwill of liberation.

And now they come for more. This time, they want our ocean and deny us of its bounty, which have supported our lives and our families through thousands of years. They want to preserve and conserve, but we have done this for centuries. The only reason they can make such a case today is because we have successfully done so for hundreds of years. But they want to dictate once again on their terms.

But this time, we are not hampered by gratefulness. Among us are vigilant citizens and responsible stewards of our resources.

Mr. Manny Duenas of the Fisherman's Co-op and the other members of the fishing community of Guam who took the initiative to learn about and spread the information regarding President Bush's proposed establishment of a Conservation Area surrounding the Marianas Trench are such.

Ever watchful, the recent meeting was not called by any federal or local government office or elected official, but was organized solely by the community-minded efforts of Manny and others.

Manny and others printed colored maps of the areas potentially affected, comment forms, the August memorandum from President Bush initiating the process, and other relevant information so that we on Guam could quickly educate ourselves and comment before the deadline which was only days away.

His direct efforts resulted in the attendance of NOOA officials, a representative of the federal Council for Environmental Quality, Congresswoman Bordallo, and many of our local fishermen and community members.

The information Manny presented at the meeting, and in particular the President's memorandum, immediately confirmed that restrictions resulting from the establishment of a conservation area of such great scale and without little input on the eve of the largest increase in military activity and equipment in US history affecting the same land and ocean area would "not limit the Department of Defense from carrying out the mission of the various branches of the military stationed or operating within the Pacific."

I object to any further restriction of the local people, especially Guam fishermen, from access to these areas while the military and other international or US commercial access continues.

A matter with tremendous significance for not only the fishermen but for ALL of the people of Guam should have been brought to us and our input solicited by government representatives with more resources for public education purposes, and especially by the federal agencies purporting to work with Guam on matters regarding our oceans, our environment, and our economic viability.

I am proud of and commend these private citizens who despite the odds against the people of Guam having an impact on federal action by the President in this case, are not only brave enough and love Guam enough to stand up for themselves but to also make the great effort to invite and assist all of us on Guam to speak up for ourselves.

They are truly public servants and public leaders.

ben pangelinan is a Senator in the 29th Guam Legislature and a former Speaker now serving his seventh term in the Guam Legislature. E-mail comments or suggestions to senbenp@guam.net.

Land Swap Deal for Jinapsan and Urunao Landowners

After years of waiting for access road, Yigo residents given...land swap deal
By Clynt Ridgell
KUAM
Published Oct 29, 2008

KUAM News has confirmed that Congresswoman Madeline Bordallo held a meeting this week between federal officials and the various families that own land in Urunao and Jinapsan. The reason was a proposed land swap that the original landowners aren't too happy about.

Families who own land on both sides of Ritidian Point - the Urunao side and the Jinapsan side of the Yigo area - have had land problems for decades now. The most recent problem deals with the families who own land on Jinapsan, a beachside property basically surrounded by Andersen Air Force Base property. The only way to get on is through the base and all the security checkpoints. After the terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001 the Star Sand Resort, owned by one of the resident families, had to close because they could no longer bring customers on base to get to their beach resort.

Juan Flores's family used to own land in what is now the Ritidian Wildlife Refuge. He is also related to the families that own Urunao and Jinapsan. Congresswoman Bordallo says that after 9/11 landowners with businesses like the Star Sand Resort had to close down because of the stricter security on base. Since then she began working on a way to find another way to access the property the problem is that much of the properties are surrounded by what is called "native forest", a natural habitat that the federal government or fish and wildlife to be exact is trying to preserve.

This made it unfeasible to build the type of access road that the Jinapsan property owners wanted. Flores said, "Then the Fish and Wildlife people decided that, well, maybe we can swap land they're the ones who made this determination and they were the ones who selected this area. And it's a parcel of property in Urunao."

The local government, according to Bordallo, wanted for the Jinapsan land owners to swap land with those who owned land along the Urunao side of Ritidian Point. This is something the landowners didn't agree with. "These are all interrelated families, so the Jinapsan families are saying 'Why should we swap land?' when they also own part of Ritidian," said the delegate.

Bordallo says she knew that this swap wouldn't fly, but decided to call a meeting to get all the families together to try and resolve the situation. She says it would include the Air Force, Fish and Wildlife, and the Federal Highway Administration. These families have a deadline of December 3 to decide whether or not they want to swap properties. If they choose not to Bordallo says things will remain pretty much status quo although they will try to build some sort of access road.

"We did obtain $3 million for an access to the old property and we're going to try to do the Highway people that were present there said they were going to try to do something to build a maybe a kind of a temporary access into the properties," Bordallo continued.

But Flores countered, "Our big question is why, why was this thing initiated? To protect the dead birds?" He's not buying the reason given by the federal government - namely that Fish and Wildlife wants to declare the Jinapsan area as a critical habitat and give the owners there land at Urunao.

He has a different theory, saying, "The military is coming in and who knows? We're not dumb. Maybe they will turn Ritidian as part of their recreational beach area for the military, for their dependents. I don't want you to get me wrong, I don't mind the military here, but leave us alone. Leave our land alone. Give us back what we actually deserve. That's all we're asking for."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Chris Bandy stated that if land was exchanged, the Urunao critical habitat would be lifted and transferred to Jinapsan. He also said that it was merely an attempt by his agency to afford the landowners another way to run a business while at the same time protecting habitat for the endangered Micronesian Kingfisher, the Marianas Crow and the Fanihi.

Meanwhile, AAFB also commented, stating that they support the congresswoman's and other federal agencies' efforts to provide business opportunities for Jinapasan families. The Air Force added they have provided unrestricted access to these families for the last seven years.

Hawai'i Settlement is Unlawful

Settlement is unlawful sell-out
By J. Kehaulani Kauanui ⋅ February 12, 2008
http://www.hawaiistandard.com

Although the Honolulu dailies have been touting the recent settlement agreement between Governor Linda Lingle and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as a “land and cash deal worth over $200 million dollars,” let’s be clear: this is no victory for the Hawaiian people. Because the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and state had been in dispute over what the payments should be, and over which lands and what revenues are covered, OHA filed a lawsuit against the state that reached the Hawai’i Supreme Court. The state court instructed the state government to negotiate with the state agency of OHA. If the state legislation passes, the state government would continue to pay OHA about $15.1 million annually and transfer some lands from one arm of state to the other.

The whole thing is a charade! This recent maneuvering within the state is simply an attempt by OHA to collect as much from the state legislature in anticipation of the Akaka bill passing, so that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs portfolio will be worth more when transferred to the proposed Native Hawaiian Governing Entity. This is the sell-out deal that would follow in the immediate wake of the passage of the Akaka bill, if it makes it out of the US Senate. OHA is working in unison with the federal representatives; they have sold us out time and time again, and now reps are trying to work their way into becoming US recognized leaders of a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity under US domestic law. Or worse, it also works as a “plan B” scheme for OHA to work their way towards a global settlement with the state in case the federal bill fails again. OHA says it wants the “return” of the lands or compensation for the loss of the lands as a result of the overthrow and annexation. Unlawful sell-out!

Given that former Governor Ben Cayetano refused to allot the revenues according to the court ordered formula in the past, we have to ask why Governor Lingle is so willing now. Don’t forget that Lingle’s State Attorney General relentlessly continues to get the Hawai`i courts to affirm that the state has the right to sell our national lands. The Hawai`i Supreme Court’s order for an injunction to bar the sale of the land until claims are resolved has people focused on the stalled Akaka bill in Congress, which could create “a third party” to resolve claims on the ceded lands—but we already know who would constitute this so-called third party: the trustees of OHA.

Whenever any state government supports federal recognition of the indigenous peoples residing without the boundaries asserted by the state, we must ask why. What will the state government of Hawaii gain from passage of the Akaka bill? And why does the state support federal recognition in this case, when states almost always oppose the federal acknowledgement of Native Nations? It’s simple: because the state has a lot to gain—the 1.8 million acres of land to which the Hawaiian people and other descendants of citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom still hold collective title. Even the US Apology Resolution passed by Congress in 1993 affirms that these are our national lands: “the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.”

As everyone knows, and yet so many still want to deny, the Hawaiian Kingdom never ceded these lands to the provisional government, nor the so-called Republic of Hawai`i, nor to the US government. The new Republic seized these lands then ceded them to the US in 1898. The Hawaii Admission Act transferred them from federal to state control, then the Hawaii State Constitution asserted that the lands shall be: “held by the State as a public trust for native Hawaiians and the general public” (Article 7, Section 4). Different branches of the state can swap, scheme, and swindle, but those of us who hold true to our history of resistance to the US “annexation,” and our unabiding claim to nationhood under international law will hold fast and hold firm; we will not settle.

Military Eyeing Properties on Guam

Expansion Planes Outlined for Military on Guam

Official outlines Guam expansion plans
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Navy communications base at the northern end of Guam will be the new headquarters for 8,000 U.S. Marines headed for the island in coming years, according to the retired general in charge of directing the military expansion.

The base — Naval and Communications Station Guam — will eventually be home for much of the housing, administration and operations buildings for the III Marine Expeditionary Force, scheduled to move from Okinawa starting in 2012, according to retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice.

“We would expect the first elements could arrive in 2012,” said Bice, the executive director of the Joint Project Office. “The goal is to have the full operational ability in 2014.”

Bice was on the island last week to meet with local leaders and to narrow down a list of “preferred alternative” sites for the future homes, schools, training areas and other facilities needed for the nearly 40,000 new military personnel and family members planned for Guam.

The overall plan, still awaiting budget approval from Congress, includes the Marines from Okinawa as well as expanded Army and Navy units on the island.

Army officials also were on Guam last week to look for a future home for an air defense station, Bice said during a telephone interview.

It’s still uncertain whether the military can complete the total expansion within its existing footprint on the island, Bice said. The Marines’ training ground will likely be on “Anderson South” a part of Andersen Air Force Base on the northern end of Guam.

But other needs could fall outside current fence lines, he said.

“We’re still evaluating what, if any, additional functions that might not necessarily fit on DOD properties,” Bice said. “It’s kind of like a puzzle.”

For example, the military may need additional land to create more ranges, which require a buffer zone between the firing area and civilian property.

Military officials are also working to determine larger training sites throughout the Marianas, Bice said. Training areas on the nearby islands will support the Marines on Guam, but will also be training sites for troops from Okinawa, Alaska, Hawaii and other countries, Bice said.

Bice’s office will offer a draft master plan in March, followed by a working-level plan next summer.

The goal is to have engineering plans firm by February 2009, the beginning of budget planning for fiscal year 2010, he said.

Manengon Land for Sale

Manengon land for sale
Texas A&M to sell 1,146-acre property for $25 million
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@ guampdn.com
11/13/07

One piece of Guam real estate, which constitutes about 1.7 percent of the entire island's civilian land inventory, is for sale.

The 1,146-acre property was a part of a much bigger property that the late businessman Harold Dwight Look owned on the hills and valleys of Manengon.

Look once owned almost 8,000 acres of land in Manengon, according to Guam court documents.

An Army veteran of World War II who served in the Pacific Theater, Look lived on Guam for about 40 years, according to his alma mater, Texas A&M University.

Look donated the 1,146-acre lot to the university in 1992, and at the time, it was the single largest gift to the university, according to Texas A&M.

The university's College of Engineering has since been named the Dwight Look College of Engineering, which today has an enrollment of close to 9,000 future engineers in a variety of fields -- from computer to oil drilling to space engineering, according to the university.

Look was 80 when he died in 2002 in his home state of Texas, according to the university.

Price tag: $25 million
The Texas A&M Foundation is selling the 1,146-acre property for a $25 million asking price, according to the seller's representatives.

The seller is being represented by CB Richard Ellis, a Los Angeles-based real estate services company, and Guam-based Captain Realty Advisors.

The property was valued at $52 million at the time Look donated it to the university, according to Texas A&M's Web site.

Guam's property values were priced much higher when Look made the donation to Texas A&M because of the island's real estate boom at the time, said Nick Captain, president of Captain Realty Advisors.

Between the 1980s and early 1990s, Japanese investors fueled a real estate boom on Guam with land purchases geared toward resort and hotel developments.

But when the Japanese economy soured, along with the Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s, Guam's real estate market took a nosedive.

Guam's real estate market in the past three years has shown new signs of another boom, but this time more conservative.

Experts at a recent regional real estate conference on Guam have said that recent commercial property deals on Guam were still priced about half of the going price during the 1980s to early 1990s peak.

The multibillion-dollar military buildup being planned on Guam starting in about two years has boosted the housing market on island.

During the past three years, the median price of single-family homes on Guam has increased 18.7 percent, on average, per year, according to CB Richard Ellis.

Mixed use
The 1,146-acre property "is the biggest property that's got near-term development potential" listed for sale on Guam in almost a decade, said Nick Captain, president of Captain Realty Advisors, who's been keeping track of real estate transactions locally for years.
The property is vast enough for a variety of uses, and its near-term potential includes residential subdivision developments, Captain said.

The property has access along both sides of the road to LeoPalace Resort.

Look once owned more than 7,900 acres of real property in the Manengon area, according to Guam Supreme Court documents concerning a smaller, 120-acre property Look owned.

Miyama Development, the company that developed the Manengon Hills area where LeoPalace now stands, had purchased about 5.5 million square meters of land that once belonged to Look, Captain said.

Donation
The government of Guam also is a beneficiary of a land donation from Look.
In 1998, Look donated to the local government more than 100,000 square meters of Manengon Hills land, which was a concentration camp for thousands of Chamorros during the Japanese occupation in World War II, according to Guam legislative records.

Look made the donation so that the site can be developed into a memorial for those who suffered and died in the concentration camp.

In 2001, GovGuam granted the nonprofit Manenggon Memorial Foundation a $1-a-year lease on the 100,000 square meters for the construction of the memorial, according to Guam law.

Airport Media Blitz

GIAA launches public relations blitz
'Project Airport Now' seeks to inform despite tensions with landowners
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
slimtiaco@guampdn.com

The island's airport is in the middle of a $95,000 public relations effort, including broadcast and print advertisements, brochures, and a press conference, to "elicit public support and participation" for airport issues, projects and activities that affect the community.

It's called "Project Airport Now," and the airport's board members approved its budget more than a year ago, according to the board's minutes.

The A.B. Won Pat Guam International Airport Authority has been distributing information about ongoing and planned capital improvement projects at Tiyan, and last week issued a report crediting the airport with contributing $1.7 billion to the island's economy last year.

It's no coincidence that the airport's message about its positive contribution to the island is being sent just as ground is being broken for the commercial development of former ancestral land at Tiyan -- land coveted by families who have been returned only a fraction of what was condemned by the federal government five decades ago.

"It's a proactive approach to tell the people of Guam, including the subsequent claimants of those (Tiyan) properties, that these are the ABC's and XYZ's of what we are doing right now," said airport Executive Director Jess Torres. "Development of the Tiyan Industrial Park is part and parcel to our development. It just happens to be on the first part of the old enlisted (housing) area."

The government of Guam's policy is to return, through the Ancestral Lands Commission, excess federal land to the families who owned it before it was condemned. In the case of the former military housing area at Tiyan, which is adjacent to the airport runway, only the strip of land between the road and cliffline was returned. Most of the land once owned by the families is on the other side of the street and was deeded by federal officials specifically to the airport for its use.

The airport erected a multimillion-dollar fence in June to separate its property, and last week Triple B Forwarders broke ground on a $2.5 million shipping facility on the land. The airport expects to collect $1.6 million in lease payments from Triple B over 10 years.

Torres said the airport's goal is to do, "What is best for our island. What is best for our people, instead of just a select few."

He said if the commercial projects envisioned at the Tiyan Industrial Park materialize, the children of the ancestral owners, "very likely would end up working for these companies."

Opposition
"I'm against building more stuff. There's no jungle anymore. What's Guam without jungle?" said 27-year-old John Leon Guerrero, who lives with his cousin in one of the former military houses returned to its ancestral owners.

Asked what should happen to the fenced-in land across the street, Leon Guerrero said, "It should go back to the people who own it... Jobs are good, but where's Guam gonna go? It's gonna be one big industrial park."

Torres said, "We've taken a position that we don't have any excess lands to return to anybody." He said the former military property was not deeded to the government of Guam as a whole, but to the airport as a specific entity, and only for its use to benefit the public.

"I don't think it's fair. Why give partial (to the families), and claim the other side (of the road) to be theirs, when actually the whole lot belongs to my family," said 38-year-old Monica DeVera, who has lived in the former military housing along the cliffline for about 2 years.

Her family's ancestral lot is 91,000 square meters large -- most of it in the hands of the airport.

The approximate value of her family's entire ancestral property, including the majority portion held by the airport, is about $4.9 million, based on comparable property values in the area.

"Give it back to the landowners," she said about the land the airport has fenced in. "If not, then compensate them for it."

The airport stands to receive millions of dollars through the lease of the property, but Torres said the airport's bond agreements, as well as the deed to the property, prohibit the airport from using that money as compensation to the families.

"What more do they need to expand? For what?" DeVera asked. "It's not gonna benefit me. It's just going to cause more headaches."

Global economy
The airport terminal itself has about three times more passenger capacity than Guam currently needs, but airport officials said the development of the industrial park is intended to diversify the airport, beyond serving passengers. The revenue that's generated from the property will help the airport make its bond payments and will pay for any needed increases in airport operations, they said.

"The benefit would be that Guam would continue to be in a position to grow the economy," said airport board Chairman Frank Blas. "If we don't have these warehouses, these people who are transporting cargo from one place to another -- they'll probably go to another airport."

Blas said if Guam were to isolate itself, then the airport probably wouldn't need any further development.

"But we can't help but be part of this growing global economy," he said. "If you don't do what the airlines require, you're going to be left behind."

Sen. Jesse Lujan, R-Tamuning, chairman of the legislative aviation committee, said he supports continued development of the airport-held property.

"If we can become a cargo hub ... that's a great thing," he said. "It creates jobs, they become taxpayers, and there's more economic activity."

Bracing For the Next Wave

Bracing for next wave
By Kirsten Scharnberg Chicago Tribune national correspondent
June 18, 2007

Residents of Guam nervously await a planned influx of thousands of American troops, unsure if it bodes well or ill for this tiny, strategically located U.S. territory in the Pacific

AGANA, Guam—There is no better view in Guam than the one from atop the air traffic control tower at Andersen Air Force Base on this island's northern shore. The Pacific Ocean stretches endlessly. The mountains with their lush foliage jut into the turquoise sky. When bad weather rolls in, it often can be spotted from here before anywhere else.

There is a storm, of sorts, coming to this speck of an island in the West Pacific.

Over the next decade, the Pentagon plans to shift at least 8,000 Marines here from Okinawa, Japan, boosting the permanent U.S. ilitary presence on Guam to levels unseen since World War II.

The Air Force will expand its base by some 2,500 personnel and host a constant rotation of long-range bomber squadrons to help the U.S. deal with threats posed by a nuclear North Korea, a fast-expanding Chinese military and Islamic terrorist cells in such places as Indonesia and the Philippines.

And the Navy will continue to add sailors and some of its most advanced weapons, including Trident missiles and nuclear submarines.

In all, a remote U.S. territory once nicknamed "Operation Sleepy Hollow" within military circles will go from hosting only a few thousand U.S. troops to having up to 20,000, earning it a couple of new nicknames: "Fortress Pacific" and "America's unsinkable aircraft carrier."

"I don't think anyone can say exactly how good or bad this change will be," said Melissa Savares, mayor of Dededo, the island village expected to be most affected by the Marine expansion. "But everyone can safely say it will be profound."

Looking closely at the tropical vistas of Guam, an island only 30 miles long, one can already see the early signs of change and potential conflict.

Bulldozers tear through palm trees to clear previously undeveloped acres for buildings and training areas on land that families in Guam claim was unfairly seized from them by the U.S. military, which currently owns nearly one-third of the island.

And on the bluffs overlooking the island's most beautiful stretch of shoreline, dozens of families are creating a makeshift town by occupying rows of crumbling buildings on abandoned federal property, vowing to face off against the wrecking balls if plans for a superhighway through their ancestral property go forward.

"I respect the military because they serve our country," said Princess Rupley, 29, a mother living in condemned Federal Aviation Administration housing near the airport. "But when you come to a tiny island where land matters the way it does here, you can't barge in and take the amount of property that the federal government has for the last 60 years here. At some point there's got to be a backlash."

Guam has had little say in its relationship with Washington since the island became a U.S. territory in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Although Guam residents are U.S. citizens, they cannot vote in presidential elections, and the island's representative in Congress can be on committees but has no vote on the House floor.

But that may be changing. Some of the island's top leaders and activists recognize that there may never be a better time for Guam to bargain with the federal government than now, when the U.S. military so badly needs this little island so perfectly situated to be a key link in the United States' modern Asia policy.

And as a result, a movement is gaining traction to demand that the people of Guam be allowed to vote on what kind of political relationship—statehood, independence or territory—they want to have with the U.S. in the years to come.

Century of the Pacific

This spring, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to the Pacific to champion the United States' global military strategy. One of his first stops was Guam, and his remarks to troops at Andersen Air Force Base hinted broadly at the growing significance of this island that sits within easy flight or sail of China, North Korea and the Strait of Malacca, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, especially for oil.

"Guam is in the heart of a strategic area where the distances are great and the responsibilities are many," Cheney said. "By positioning our forces on Guam, the United States can move quickly and effectively to protect our friends … and to keep the sea lanes open to commerce and closed to terrorists. This island may be small, but it has tremendous importance."

Even as Cheney spoke, Andersen air base was working on construction of typhoon-resistant hangars that can house up to 10 Global Hawks, the nation's most advanced unmanned global spy planes. And across the island, at Naval Base Guam, the port is to be re-outfitted to hold new stealth combat ships that can deploy special covert forces.

Indeed, while most eyes in recent years have focused on the Middle East and demands on U.S. forces there, many military experts have predicted this to be the century of the Pacific.

American military officials hope that a significant U.S. presence in the Pacific will make China think twice about attempting to push into Taiwan. The U.S. also wants to monitor what some experts have called an Asian arms race, where governments from China to Pakistan have begun building up submarine fleets, many of which have stealth capabilities advanced enough to elude U.S. radar. And routine U.S. military exercises off the coast of Guam are clearly intended as a show of force to the North Koreans.

In his recent speech, Cheney thanked the people of Guam for their support. "You've made us feel right at home here," he said. But the vice president never left the base during his brief island visit. If he had, he would have encountered several dozen protesters with posters such as "Massive military buildup catastrophic to Guam." He would have seen that while the vast majority of residents hope the expansion will help the island, not everyone wants the military to feel welcome here.

Demanding a seat at the table: Sitting on the patio of a run-down little bar on Guam's southern shore, Debbie Quinata shakes with rage as she talks about U.S. plans to increase troop levels here.

Others may worry about the expansion's effect on everyday concerns such as water and sewage systems, power and traffic. They question how the already gridlocked island of about 170,000 can absorb what may amount to well over 30,000 new military residents and their dependents.

But Quinata's concerns are broader. She fears the expanded U.S. military presence will kill any chance for a vote on political self-determination, something she and a group of activists seeking the island's independence have been demanding for years.

"The U.S. doesn't want to cede any control in a place where they are going to be having this many troops," she said. Most top military officials acknowledge that the reason they want to pull troops out of Japan is to avoid having to bargain with other governments about military decisions, which is unnecessary on land controlled by the U.S.

Quinata and other activists have taken a unique approach to try to stop the expansion. They've begun lobbying Japan's government to back out of its tentative deal to pay roughly 60 percent of the nearly $10 billion price tag associated with transferring Marines to Guam, a gambit that currently shows little promise because Japan is so keen to regain the land of Okinawa.

More moderate voices on the island are equally apprehensive about the expansion.

Guam legislator Judith Won Pat and other political leaders have traveled to Okinawa to attempt to understand why the Japanese government is so committed to ensuring that the Marines leave. She said the Japanese list a number of reasons, from prostitution to the rapes that U.S. Marines have committed there.

"If the Marines are going to come here, we need to go to great lengths to ensure the problems of Okinawa are not replicated here," Won Pat said. "The terms of engagement for this expansion have to be determined by the people of Guam. They have to at least be allowed a seat at the table, not just to have all the terms laid down for them."

Eddie Calvo, vice speaker of the Guam Legislature, looks at the military expansion through the eyes of a seasoned politician, one who knows it's always easiest to strike a bargain when the other party wants—or, better yet, needs—something from you. Calvo believes Guam has never been better positioned to push for statehood.

"In the 21st Century, Guam's role in the world is going to be more strategic than Hawaii," he said. "Now is the best time for us to try to negotiate."

Though most people on Guam want the island to have a chance for self-determination and more say in its future, polls conducted by local news media also show that up to 85 percent of the island believes the U.S. military expansion has the potential to be good for Guam. But precisely how much of the military's huge investment will spill over to the island's general economy remains to be seen.

New military housing slated for several sites on the island will reduce the number of troops who will rent private homes. And the Guam Department of Labor has talked of granting visas to some 15,000 skilled foreign laborers, the vast majority from the Philippines, in order to staff the building boom.

This land is our land Military officials this spring launched public meetings in which island residents voiced their concerns about the coming expansion. Predictably, much worry revolved around the commodity most cherished on an island as small as Guam: land.

In the eyes of many on Guam, the U.S. military does not have a good track record on this.

The history of the land debates on Guam dates to World War II. On the same day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, they easily overtook the tiny American military presence on Guam and occupied the island with brutality for two years. In 1944, the U.S. regained control of the island after a bloody battle that left Guam in shambles.

Jose and Jesus Pangelinan, whose father was executed by the Japanese for suspicions he was aiding the Americans, still weep when they remember those days. They also remember welcoming the victorious U.S. Marines with parades and hugs—until their liberators came to tell them and hundreds of other families that their land was being confiscated for military use.

Some were paid pennies on the dollar for thousands of acres of oceanfront property; others signed away their titles, believing it was the least they could do for the nation that freed them from Japanese tyranny.

"It broke our hearts—our spirits—to leave this land," said Jose Pangelinan, 82. "On an island this small, all you are is the land you own, the food you grow, the shoreline you fish. These are everything."

In the 1990s, during a decade of military downsizing, the U.S. started a program to return some of that land to original owners or their descendants. Some 9,000 families, including the Pangelinans, benefited, according to program officials. But with the coming expansion, people are terrified that history is about to repeat itself.

The land returned to the Pangelinans, for example, sits adjacent to land slated to become housing for 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents. The Defense Department has made no moves to acquire more land on Guam, and commanders on the ground say they doubt such action would be taken, but families who have lost property in the past still fear the worst.

"I want to believe my country will be fair to me," Jose Pangelinan said. "I love my country. … But the last time I believed they would be fair, everything my father had ever worked for was taken away."

His brother interrupted him.

"Whenever the U.S. troops roll in," Jesus Pangelinan, 84, said, "you never know what else will follow."

kscharnberg@tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune

Protests Won't Hold Up US Military Construction in Guam

Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=33365
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Guam government says land protest won't hold up construction of US
military base
Posted at 08:23 on 02 July, 2007 UTC
---------------------------
The office of Guam's Governor, Felix Camacho, says it doesn’t expect
protest action by Urunao landowners to hamper planned construction by the
US military in their area.

About 400 Urunao landowners are concerned that they are being kept in the
dark about how their land is to feature in the construction plans for the
US military's pending build-up with the relocation of 8,000 Marines from
Okinawa to Guam.

The Marianas Variety newspaper reports that some of the landowners have
blocked off the access road leading to their property.

The Governor's spokesman, Shawn Gumataotao says the military are planning
construction on land the federal government legitimately owns.

But he concedes that access to and from that property is the issue:

"It's been an issue for, gosh, on six years now, and they (the military)
are working with the landowners individually to cmoe to some resolution.
It's not going to be an easy one, considering the amount of activity
that's going to be in that area on the footprint that belongs to the
federal government"

Landless Locals

Taman: Don’t Forget Landless Locals
By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff
Monday, 14 May 07
---------------------

REPRESENTATIVE Candido B. Taman on Friday said he voted against the resolution granting a 25-year lease of public land to Marianas Resort Development Co. Inc. because there are still thousands of landless locals waiting for homestead lots.

Taman, R-Saipan, said the government invites investors but seems to have forgotten homestead lot applicants.

Department of Public Lands homestead division director Jerome K. Aldan said there are 3,489 pending applications for homestead lots.

Applicants who comply with requirements, rules and regulations are granted a 929 square- meter lot for residential purposes.

Although the homestead division still hopes it will be able to accommodate the applicants, records show that lots for 11 homestead projects have yet to be issued to applicants, the number of which continues to increase.

Two homestead projects that started in 2003 have issued lots to 42 applicants.

The projects include the 1.9 hectare homestead project in Kagman IV and the seven-hectare area in Dandan II.

Taman said the government should balance the interests of investors and the local people when it comes to giving out public land.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have adopted a joint resolution granting the approval of MRDC’s request to lease 136.5 hectares of public land on Tinian for an 18-hole golf course as well as a hotel and casino that will be constructed in the next two years.

“If we can give MRDC a total of 1.3 million square meters of public land for its casino operation, why can we not provide our own people with 929 square meters of it for a home?” Taman said.