HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Senators on Monday heard from real estate agents and a bar owner about financial hardships and a tragic loss of life as they testified in support of a bill that would end the governor’s authority to renew declarations of a public health emergency.
Instead, that authority would be shifted to the Legislature, under Sen. Chris Duenas’ Bill 11-36.
Thomas Peinhopf, the owner of two bars, Livehouse and The Shady Lady, protests the closure of Guam’s bar businesses on Dec. 1, 2020 in Tumon.
Photo by Norman M. Taruc/The Guam Daily Post
Those who testified via Zoom said it’s time the Legislature use checks and balances of the governor’s power in extending emergency declarations, and to ensure that businesses are treated fairly when it comes to reopening in the midst of the pandemic.
Speaker Therese Terlaje said her committee also received written testimony from the Guam Chamber of Commerce; from Duenas, Camacho & Associates Inc.; and the Guam Association of Realtors “in support of the bill.”
Guam remains under a public health state of emergency because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the governor has been renewing this declaration every 30 days since March.
Most businesses have been allowed to reopen, including bingo parlors and gaming halls, with restrictions, but not bars and related industries.
“The government at some point needs to treat all businesses equal like we treat all citizens equal,” Gina Campos, a real estate professional, told the speaker, other members of the Committee on Health, Land, Justice and Culture, and other senators.
Campos said a business should not have to go in front of anybody to justify why they should reopen when they have the business license and permits to do so, while nearly all other businesses are already allowed to operate.
“We feel that it is a targeted effort to remove us and annihilate us,” said Thomas Peinhopf, spokesperson for nearly 50 bar owners and nightlife business operators.
‘Very tragic’
Peinhopf, who took the governor and others to court for the prolonged forced business shutdowns, said the health and safety guidelines for safe reopening has been identical for restaurants and bars when they were allowed to reopen for a few weeks starting in June.
“There was not a single case of Covid traced back to a bar,” Peinhopf told senators.
The financial and emotional toll on bar owners, their employees and their families, has been hard, he said.
“As a matter of fact, we had one suicide as well because of the situation,” Peinhopf said in his testimony before senators. “But besides many closing, and filing bankruptcy, to see that somebody takes his own life, not finding a way out and not receiving any help, I think on Guam, in America, in any Western society, is incredible.”
Sen. Telo Taitague said it’s “very tragic” and shocking to hear about this.
“I, too, feel why aren’t bars open when you’re allowing the bingo parlors to be open and not allowing bars. This has been a real big puzzle to me,” the senator said.
Duenas, the main sponsor of the bill, echoed the sentiment. “This doesn’t seem to make any sense,” he said.
He said the public can count on the Legislature to be “reasonable and responsible” when the governor seeks an extension of the public health emergency, should Bill 11-36 become law.
“You’re talking about politics? I think most businesses are going to tell you right now, Madame Speaker, they feel like politics is the one that’s been closing them down,” Duenas said, when the speaker read questions from the public during the public hearing.
Taitague said with guidance, more senators should be able to override a governor’s veto of the bill if it passes and reaches the governor’s desk.
Liz Duenas, a real estate professional, asked senators to pass Bill 11-36 to help bring a balance of power between the Adelup and the Legislature.
She said the previous Legislature could have done something about the prolonged shutdown, which could have helped ease the burdens on businesses, their employees and their families.
“I feel that this bill at least is a step. It’s not all the answers, but it’s a step toward balancing the powers that be,” she said.
Bill co-sponsors Tony Ada and James Moylan, along with Sens. Frank Blas and Joanne Brown, spoke on the bill’s importance.
Other states have had their state legislature sued the state governor for exactly the same thing that Duenas and other sponsors of Bill 11-36 have been trying to do – to authorize the Legislature to renew a public health emergency, the senators said.
The speaker said her committee also expects written testimony from the Department of Public Health and Social Services and the Office of the Attorney General, among other agencies.
The administration earlier said existing law already authorized the Legislature to end a public health emergency at any time.
Forced to close
Peinhopf owns Livehouse in Tumon and The Shady Lady in Dededo, and continues to be charged $10,000 a in rent month for both commercial properties despite not being allowed to open by the government.
Bars have been forced to close for about a year and the government offered to help pay only two months of rent and the program was not fairly applied between those that are still closed and those that were allowed to reopen quickly, he said.
While Public Health came down hard on a handful of bar owners last year, he said, it was not because of Covid-19 cases but because of a lack of a type of certification that prior to Covid-19 was not enforced and was not widely promoted, a ServSafe certification.
