HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Speaker Therese Terlaje said she was “shocked” to see detailed provisions regarding the lease of Eagles Field in the Senate Armed Services Committee version of the National Defense Authorization Act, along with an express provision that the property shall not be deemed excess land for return to the government of Guam.
But, in response to Terlaje, the governor’s office said the draft language only made clear what Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero had been saying about the property all this time – that it would not be deemed excess.
The Eagles Field area of Mangilao, also known as Lålo and referred to by the Senate as the transmitter site in Barrigada, was once property eyed to be the location of a new hospital and medical campus.
The governor’s administration had been drafting a lease for the property with the U.S. Navy, but, due to concerns from the attorney general and the passage of law that would require legislative review of such leases with the federal government – all while Guam had been given limited time to approve the lease – Leon Guerrero ultimately chose not to pursue the property.
Several families also claim ancestral ownership of the property, tying the medical campus project to longstanding issues involving the return of land taken by the military.
But if the property was not used for a medical campus, Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, the former commander of Joint Region Marianas, indicated it would go to military use in line with needs to set up missile defense systems on Guam.
‘Behind our backs’
The speaker stated that several concerns struck her immediately after reading the Senate committee version of the NDAA.
“First, there are some very high-level discussions and lobbying going on in Washington, D.C., regarding land on Guam – behind our backs, and apparently without any knowledge of our congressman. Neither the congressman nor the governor have announced this to us as part of their lobbying efforts. If Guam has such a high-level, effective lobbying power, Congress should have included a provision expressly affirming that excess federal land returned to the government of Guam may be transferred to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission to meet the public purpose of rectifying the injustice done by military land takings years ago,” Terlaje stated.
But most concerning to her, Terlaje added, was what she learned regarding the desire to station missile defense systems in the same area.
“This offer for us to develop Eagles Field property may be connected to creating a buffer zone for them to put missiles in the adjacent area without fully addressing the environmental impact or the surrounding residents, and the people of Guam will bear the cost of bringing in infrastructure such as power, roads and water, and the lease can be designed by the military to include the safety zone required for the missile stations,” the speaker stated.
‘Makes no sense’
Commenting on Terlaje’s statements, the governor’s office said that Leon Guerrero had written to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro stating she would no longer pursue Eagles Field due to objections from the Guam Legislature and attorney general.
“For months, Gov. Leon Guerrero worked in good faith to lease Eagles Field at no cost to the people of Guam, so their government could build a new state-of-the-art medical campus and hospital on federal property that the military would otherwise use for a missile defense system. Attorney General (Douglas) Moylan and the Guam Legislature blocked this deal. Now, the speaker is claiming to be ‘shocked’ that the military will not consider the land excess property and ‘shocked’ it will be used for national defense. Her supposed ‘shock’ makes no sense considering that Gov. Leon Guerrero has maintained this from the start,” the governor’s office stated.
No ‘benefit of courtesy’
Terlaje’s statements also drew comment from Guam Del. James Moylan, that Terlaje was referring to a draft bill and when he learned of the Eagles Field language inserted late Friday into this bill, his office started reaching out to certain Senate offices to see if they can help remove the language.
Moylan noted that Guam does not have a seat in the Senate and, unless his office receives documents from a senator’s office or an issue is raised over a bicameral caucus Moylan is a part of, he will learn of things as they are made public.
An Eagles Field amendment for the House version of the NDAA was sent over by the House Armed Services Committee, but, because his office had been informed that the governor was no longer pursuing the property, HASC staff members were advised that the amendment was not a priority, and it did not make the final House version of the NDAA, Moylan said.
That amendment was not due to any lobbying effort or alleged conspiracy, “but was forwarded by the Navy because at the time it was being drafted, there was an active conversation ongoing,” Moylan said.
However, because Guam has no seat in the Senate, the “benefit of courtesy” did not exist between the Senate Armed Services Committee staff and his office, Moylan said.
“And because it is a general practice, they inserted the language in the ‘draft’ bill, knowing that the language could still be removed in the process,” Moylan added.
In case the Eagles Field language is not removed at the Senate level, there is still an opportunity to do so when the Senate and House versions are reconciled, according to Moylan.
“While we recognize the concerns of Speaker Terlaje, a letter or a phone call would have sufficed so she would be made aware of our efforts here in Congress on these issues,” Moylan stated. “More importantly, we would have welcomed her recommendations, as we did from a handful of agencies who reached out for our consideration of potential language in the House version of the NDAA, where we have a voice.”
The 36th assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric M. Smith, salutes during a ceremony for the 79th anniversary of the Liberation of Guam at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 13, 2023.
