By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

THE much-awaited court argument on one of the most pivotal issues for Guam will be heard in Washington, D.C. Monday by U.S. Supreme Court justices who will discuss the island’s bond borrowing.
The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States and only 1 percent of 8,000 cases filed yearly get the chance to be heard.
In October last year, it granted the petition of former Attorney General Douglas Moylan to be heard on questions whether the local Supreme Court misinterpreted the bond borrowing provision capping the amount of debt to prevent government insolvency, and protecting Guam residents from oppressive taxation.
Moylan hired a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Wilmer Hale, to prepare petitions and documents and to argue the case on his behalf.
But because Moylan’s term ended, newly-installed Attorney General Alicia Limtiaco now oversees the case and will personally witness the oral argument in Washington, D.C. tomorrow.
Limtiaco left the island on Thursday to meet Atty. Seth Waxman for case briefings. Waxman will argue for the AGO’s question.
Gov. Felix P. Camacho, who was named as respondent in the case, will be represented by his conflicts counsel Dan Benjamin of Calvo & Clark.
The question presented by Moylan is considered a matter of great importance because it affects the operations of the local government which is anticipating bond floats as a major remedy to pay its outstanding debts and obligations.
The magnitude of bond floats is a reflection of the government’s effort to obtain financing to avoid the shutdown of government operations, payless paydays and mass lay-offs.
Under Public Law 27-79, the governor can issue government of Guam bonds for the purpose of paying certain government expenses in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed the amount necessary to provide $218,309,857 for the payment of certain general fund expenses, and to provide $200,000,000 to fund an escrow to pay the debt service on all or a portion of the existing government indebtedness for the Government of Guam general obligation bonds at a matched maturity.
But before the governor could enter into a contract to issue the bonds, he was required to obtain approval from the elected attorney general.
The former attorney general, however, declined to support the governor’s bond floats, arguing that government officials failed to follow the law.
Moylan urged the Camacho administration to conduct are island-wide appraisal or re-evaluate the method in which the borrowing ceiling was calculated.
Despite the Guam Supreme Court ruling against his petition, Moylan filed a petition before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition was, however, tossed back by the appellate court for lack of jurisdiction, prompting the former attorney general to bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.