By Ben Pangelinan
For Variety

THERE is an old saying that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” No, I am not talking about George and Jeb.
I am talking about the recent almost universal enumerations of everyone in our business community seem to have with the planned expansion of the military on Guam. It seems that the planned move of 8,000 Marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam is seen as the second liberation of Guam.
Supporters tout that nothing but good will come with the Marines’ relocation. The distant ringing of cash registers with the promised economic expansion drown out the concerns of those who do not support the move and the many looking at the expansion with trepidation and uncertainty of what it will mean to the quality of life outside of the dream dollars.
The recent scoping meetings provided no new information from the Joint Planning Office and the federal officials. They did, however, clearly scoped out the “who” rather than the “what” of the many sentiments and concerns expressed and displayed by citizens who attended the meetings.
While the government and community are pouring untold resources (the Civilian/Military Task Force number over 80 directors, administrators and private sector representatives) into a process that we are led to believe we will have some influence upon, we need to be realistic. The move of military personnel to Guam is not a matter of “if we build it they will come,” but rather “if they need to, they will come.” In all the discussions, I have not heard military planners say they will not come if we do not do this or that. Instead, they say, if you do not have it or it is not up to our standard, we will do it ourselves or have someone else do it for us.
While everyone is focusing on an “industry” that we have very limited control over, we seem to have delegated our number one industry and one we can have much greater influence and control over to second fiddle. I am of course speaking about tourism.
It is the industry where we can put in place policies and programs that can flourish into true partnerships. It is one where the locals and the visitors are on the same side of the fence, living with the same successes and shortcomings. Our visitors drink the same water, drive the same roads and enjoy the same beaches as those of us who live here.
Any improvements we make to our side of the fence benefit us as well as our visitors. We cannot unequivocally say this about the improvements that will happen on the military side of the fence.
Next month, we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the island’s tourism industry. It was May of 1967 when the first jet landed at the Guam International Airport, now called AB Won Pat International Airport, with the first load of 109 tourists from Tokyo, Japan.
It ushered in a new era and industry for Guam, helping us re-balance our economy from its almost total dependency on military presence. Over the past 40 years, we have tipped the scale and tourism is now our leading economic activity, with all its attendant support services.
While our tourism baby is now a 40-year-old industry, we must continue to keep it young and fresh. We need the same if not double the effort we are putting into the military expansion for our tourism industry.
Remember, when the military decides it needs to leave, they will pack their bags, load their planes, and fly off. No amount of pleading or investments into our community will keep them from leaving.
With tourism, the greater investment and improvement we make in our community, the more visitors we can convince to visit and stay longer.
If we are welcoming and hospitable, our island clean and beautiful, and they have a memorable experience they can treasure, they will come and keep coming.
Let us not lose sight of our bird in the hand.

Ben Pangelinan is a senator in the 29th Guam Legislature and a former speaker now serving in his seventh term in the Guam Legislature.
E-mail comments or suggestions to senbenp@guam.net or ctzenben@ite.net.