The United States Congress has so far denied payment of war reparations to relatives of dead people, which has nothing whatever to do with the money involved and everything to do with the exceedingly dangerous precedent it would set. It hasn’t happened before — ever — and it’s not likely to happen now.
Not to worry. Guam Sen. Frank Blas has the solution. He proposes that should the Congress again refuse to give us what we want we should “do it ourselves.” Now there’s an interesting concept. Why didn’t Senator Pangelinan think of that? The manamko’ and their relatives and survivors could have a wonderful opportunity to pay themselves war reparations.
But wait! Where would the money come from? GovGuam has been in a deficit spending mode for nearly two decades and is perpetually broke.
I know! We’ll borrow it! Alas, that won’t work either. GovGuam is tapped out on public debt borrowing. The Legislature would have to again fiddle with the real property tax structure to artificially raise the borrowing limit, most likely to the point where the assessed value of your property upon which the debt limit is based exceeds the market value. Brace yourself for another COLA-type loan scheme.
Perhaps, eventually, our delegate to Congress will succeed in distributing public funds to descendants of those who had ringside seats for the horrors of WWII. In order to achieve some semblance of equity, she should also demand matching compensation for the families of the U.S. soldiers and marines who died reclaiming Guam from the Japanese occupiers.
How about that recent audit that revealed some really nasty things about the Medically Indigent Program. Plenty wrong with that. Of 38 case files reviewed by the auditor, involving nearly a half-million dollars, 37 (97 percent) didn’t contain adequate support for MIP eligibility. The audit also revealed that the MIP is more generous than GovGuam healthcare plans. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that there’s something seriously wrong with that program. In fiscal year 2009 a single MIP recipient collected nearly $400,000. During that same time period $5.5 million, or 52 percent of the $10.5 million MIP benefits paid went to 20 people. That’s an average of $275,000 each. Wonder how difficult it would be to learn who those 20 are, and who their relatives are.
Do you find this at all intriguing? Any red flags there? Magellan would understand.
DAVE DAVIS
Yigo, Guam
