HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Delegate Michael San Nicolas on Monday night said Guam’s economy has taken a turn for the worse because of local policies, and took a jab at the governor for allegedly discounting the delegate’s role in bringing in more than $1 billion in federal pandemic funds to Guam.
San Nicolas, 41, is challenging Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero in the upcoming Democratic gubernatorial primary.
“We are not in economic recovery mode,” he said. “We’re simply climbing out of the rubble of bad policy that we have been buried under because our economic activity and outlook has not actually improved and rising tourism numbers are compromised by reduced purchasing power.”
San Nicolas painted a gloomy picture of Guam, a direct contrast to the governor’s recent State of the Island Address where she said Guam is moving forward and is getting stronger every day.
The delegate used a big portion of his congressional address — his last one — to criticize the governor’s policies and procedures as the August primaries near.
The governor later told reporters that San Nicolas’ speech was “not one of hope but rather of defeat.”
“It was not a leader of optimism, it’s a leader of negativism. And right now I think because our people are feeling a lot better about returning back to some normalcy, we can’t tear them down. We need to work with them and lift them up. And I did not hear that in this message,” the governor said.
She believes San Nicolas was very insensitive to the Guam Legislature for saying that Guam should use all federal funds and totally discredit senators for trying to help the people of Guam with the Local Employers Assistance Program, or LEAP, and other relief programs.
‘Very disturbing’
Less than 3 minutes into his address, San Nicolas said that in a video footage of the governor addressing a crowd, the governor purportedly said “federal aid would have come to Guam regardless of who the congressional delegate is.”
“These statements are dangerous not because of the political season but because it reduces the expectations our people should have of their congressional office,” San Nicolas said, before pointing to his efforts at making sure Guam and other territories are included in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program and other pandemic relief programs.
A small section of a massive bill, he said, “saved our islands.”
“That is the significance of your congressional office and should never be forgotten,” he said, drawing applause from the crowd at the Congress Building.
San Nicolas also shared that Deloitte, a premier accounting firm in the nation, is pulling out of Guam.
“When a firm like this pulls out, it means that the outlook of business environment on Guam is not going to get better and likely to get worse and it makes better sense for them to leave,” he said.
‘Very disappointing’
The governor said San Nicolas’ address was “very disappointing,” and not “hopeful” for the island.
“He tore down any progress we have made toward economic recovery. And totally demeaned the people of Guam in terms of struggling hard, working together to lift each other up and to move forward in economic recovery,” the governor said. “We are having a good economic recovery and to say that we’re not is, I think, a disconnect with the people of Guam.”
The governor, who’s seeking reelection, said she’s “a bit insulted” by this message “for the people of Guam.”
San Nicolas also said that the governor continues to hoard over $300 million in American Rescue Plan funds while people are suffering.
“Folks, when a gallon of milk on Guam is more than two times as expensive as a gallon of gas, and our gas is already crazy expensive as it is, it doesn’t take complex economic analysis to determine that a local source is needed and that it would be sustainable and economical if the basic infrastructure was in place,” said San Nicolas, who suggested developing a dairy industry.
The delegate once again criticized the governor’s plan to allocate portions of the ARP funds to help build a new hospital.
He said there’s no way Guam will be able to obligate and then spend the ARP money to build the hospital by the 2024 and 2026 deadlines, respectively.
The governor said a hospital will be built in less than four years.
The delegate said there needs to be honesty “about the difference between how things look and how things are,” considering the high cost of living, inflation, tourism arrivals that are nowhere near pandemic numbers and bad policies.
To drive his point, he read The Guam Daily Post’s story about a family of 12 leaving Guam for good because of the harsh economic realities on the island that make it hard for families to survive.
San Nicolas also laid out his plans and proposals to help lower the cost of living on Guam, and outlined the congressional bills he introduced to benefit Guam.
Whoever wins between Leon Guerrero and San Nicolas in the Democratic primary will face the Republican ticket of former Gov. Felix Camacho and Sen. Tony Ada in the November general election.
San Nicolas’ address also comes days after the U.S. House Committee on Ethics voted to send his ethics case and report to the U.S. Department of Justice, for alleged violations of federal election laws and allegedly trying to cover them up.
Guam Delegate Michael San Nicolas delivers his last congressional address Monday evening at the Guam Congress Building with elected officials attending including, bottom left, Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio; top left, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero; and Speaker Therese Terlaje.
