By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

CONTRARY to the pronouncement made by her predecessor, newly installed Attorney General Alicia Limtiaco said the legal representation by the Washington, D.C. lawyer in the Guam bond case is not free.
In a long distance telephone interview, Limtiaco belied the statement of former Attorney General Douglas Moylan that the oral arguments made by Atty. Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP will not cost Guam taxpayers.
“It wasn’t free at all. The oral arguments and representation were part of the package deal that the Attorney General’s Office agreed to with the law firm last year,” Limtiaco told Variety.
Limtiaco, who will be back from Washington, D.C. today, did not disclose the details of her conversation with the law firm regarding the payment but said she will review the contract for the bond case representation.
Waxman argued on behalf of the AGO before the U.S. Supreme Court last Monday.
In July last year, Moylan said the law firm was hired with a negotiated price of $352 per hour and the total bill should not be more than $35,000.
But a few days before the Jan. 8, 2007 U.S. Supreme Court hearing in the nation’s capitol, Moylan expressed apprehension that the bond case representation would be affected by the non-payment of the law firm.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, whose clients include Enron, Sony and Boeing, was hired by Moylan to represent the AGO in a petition they filed before the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the legality of the bond borrowing plan of Gov. P. Felix Camacho.
Moylan earlier noted the need to pay an outside law firm “to supplement the AGO” as he mentioned also tapping the services of other private firms in his court battle on the earned income tax credit issue, the airport case and the maritime case.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion by the middle of this year.
Camacho wants to borrow at least $300 million to pay the financial obligations and debts of the government like the EITC, Retirement Fund contributions, tax refunds and power bills.
Moylan was questioning the legality of the bond floats in the absence of an island-wide appraisal of Guam properties, which would be the basis for borrowing money.
“We would like to determine whether the Government of Guam can still borrow additional money without conducting an island-wide appraisal as required by law. We also need an interpretation of the law that governs the borrowing ceiling in the Organic Act,” he earlier said.