By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

SENATOR Ben Pangelinan, D-Barrigada, has filed a resolution seeking the Department of the Interior’s release of $2 million out of the Compact-Impact funds to the Guam Public School System for repairs to the agency’s facilities.
Guam gets a share of $14 million from the $30 million annual appropriation that the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003 provides to U.S. jurisdictions affected by the migration of Freely Associated States citizens. The 20-year Compact appropriation is divided among Guam, the CNMI, American Samoa and Hawaii.
Resolution 19, co-sponsored by Speaker Mark Forbes, R-Sinajana, and Minority Leader Judi Won Pat, D-Malojloj, urges Gov. Felix P. Camacho to submit to the DOI a request for the release of $2 million for GPSS capital repairs.
Last month, Pangelinan wrote to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs David Cohen, asking for the immediate release of Compact-Impact funds but the senator got no response.
Pangelinan subsequently wrote a follow-up letter to the governor to inquire if any discussion on the request to release Compact-Impact funds took place while the governor attended the Seventh Annual Western Micronesian Chief Executive Summit in Saipan.