By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
For Variety

YOU know the game. When you are in the negotiating table and you lay down all your cards for the other party to see, you lose your bargaining power. The other party gets the advantage to play hard to get. And when you fawn like a dog, you’ll be treated like one.
Guam is not part of the negotiation that involves the relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa. The transfer is pretty much a done deal. Despite persistent appeals from local leaders for the federal government to set aside funds for civilian infrastructure developments on island, Guam hasn’t received a commitment from the federal government other than a pat on the back for being patriotic and an unapologetic “We have no clear plans yet, so wait.”
Why would the U.S. government see the need to please Guam when local government and business leaders keep reveling in the dollars that they think the military expansion will bring into the local economy? The local government even appealed to the Pentagon “to please bring in some more” during the BRAC process.
The military expansion on island gets no resistance, except from a handful of activists who, sadly, recede to the background as mere footnotes. The rest simply watch with apathy. This leaves the little gods in Washington thinking “We’re good to go.”
Being a U.S. territory, Guam may not have the option to negotiate on a diplomatic level like allied foreign countries. But that doesn’t mean that Guam must shortchange itself. It’s just a matter of recognizing its own bargaining chips.
Guam has a lot to offer that otherwise warrants some attitude. Its strategic importance to the U.S. mission—to deter China’s threat and scare off terrorists in neighboring countries in the Pacific—has been spelled out by the Pentagon and Washington a million times.
But Guam has more to lose, too. Whatever economic benefits that Guam stands to reap from the military expansion are at risk of being offset by the social cost of increased population—the addition of Marines, at that.
Last week, Guam senators failed to get Okinawa Representative Mikio Shimoji to broker on Guam’s behalf for a portion of the $6 billion that Japan pledged to contribute for the Marines’ relocation. But it wouldn’t be a futile meeting if Guam leaders paid attention to the reminder of something that Guam residents already know. “The bases in Guam and Okinawa have importance in the security of East Asia. Okinawa and Guam provide great contributions to Japan and the U.S. We have sacrificed our ancestral family lands for military use. If you remember those things, then you should be able to speak out,” Shimoji told the senators.
In 1991, the U.S. tried to negotiate with the Philippine government for the stay of the military bases agreement amid a broad anti-bases campaign and growing sense of nationalism among the Filipino people. The Philippine Senate eventually rejected the renewal of MBA, compelling U.S. departure from two of its biggest overseas military bases, Clark Air Base in the Pampanga province of Central Luzon and the huge Subic Naval Base in the nearby Zambales province. That may be another story. The Philippines is a sovereign country, and Guam is a U.S. territory. But, just the same, the story holds the wisdom of recognizing one’s own power—no matter how limited—and holding self-respect.
In his State of the Island Address, Gov. Felix Camacho noted: “We can no longer be ignored as some distant American territory.”
So, there. Guam must not fawn. Guam must not beg. Guam must demand for compensation that is due its people.