Our Guam delegate and my esteemed colleague Madeleine Bordallo is working to pass a bill concerning the management of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. Part of that measure would set up a visitor’s center in Guam to promote tourism, research and marine and coastal management in the area.
Some parties in the CNMI are understandably proud of their role in circulating petitions calling for establishment of the monument and others note that its mass is closer to Saipan than Guam. Thus they argue that its visitor center should be located in Saipan, rather than Guam.
But who said there had to be only one visitor center in one location? Not Delegate Bordallo. There are War in the Pacific Historic Parks in Guam and in the CNMI, so there should be no reason why visitors centers for the Marine Monument should not exist in both areas.
I urge all parties in the CNMI and Guam to put their support behind Delegate Bordallo’s effort to win passage of HR 4493, the Bonitan Tasi bill, on the condition that it be amended to include Guam and Saipan visitor centers of equal size, design and staffing to promote the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, which in reality belongs to all the citizens of the world.
JUDITH P. GUTHERTZ
Guam Senator
