By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Public School System is still uncertain about making today’s payroll, even after Attorney General Alicia Limtiaco made comments about reviewing their legal options with GPSS.
Education Superintendent Luis Reyes told Variety that he was still waiting for the transfer of the required $6 million to make full payroll.
Meanwhile, Guam Waterworks Authority spokesperson Heidi Balendorf told Variety that GPSS informed acting GWA general manager John Benavente that a payment of $97,000 for the GPSS February power bill will be made Tuesday.
Limtiaco spoke briefly with Variety on the actions the governor took Wednesday to pay the school system’s $900,000 power bill.
“The position of the Attorney General’s Office has always been that GPSS, by law, is required to pay full or gross payroll to its employees,” Limtiaco said. “We are currently reviewing any legal options available to us regarding the most recent set of events. I cannot speak about anything right now.”
Reyes said he had yet to speak with Limtiaco and the AGO on the matter. However, he told Variety that he was “curious” as to what the attorney general had to say about what happened on Wednesday.
On that day, Gov. Felix P. Camacho invoked his Organic Act authority to “protect the health and safety of Guam’s public school students” by ordering a payment to the Guam Power Authority to avoid disconnection of services to GPSS.
This was done despite the attorney general’s warnings to GPSS that their priority payments should be to payroll vendors.
On March 22, the AGO, on behalf of the Department of Labor, filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court against GPSS and the superintendent of education over payroll.
Limtiaco earlier said GPSS must follow the laws of Guam by paying its employees the full amount of payroll owed to them each and every payroll period, on time, without delay.