HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Port Authority of Guam General Manager Rory Respicio wrote letters to the Federal Communications Commission and GTA’s board chairman regarding the telecommunications company’s “misleading claims” in a petition for relief with the FCC.
On June 20, TeleGuam Holdings, doing business as GTA, filed an 18-page emergency petition with the FCC, requesting relief to assist in overcoming hurdles in restoring services after the passage of Typhoon Mawar.
In the petition, GTA describes the state of the island and said the commercial port was “hobbled” with damage from the storm, which “impeded transportation of goods and supplies onto the island.”
About a week later, Respicio stated in a news release that he was “shocked” by the petition, which he called “reckless,” saying GTA created a “false narrative” and that it was an insult to Port employees who got the facility back to full operations within three days.
In his letter to FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Respicio made a grievance with the sentence in the filing regarding the Port. He said importation of goods wasn’t impeded.
“GTA … knows or should have known at the time of filing that despite the damage done to the Port, the island’s only commercial seaport was able to open up 100% operational only three days after the storm passed with normal operations and normal vessel sequence within four days,” Respicio wrote.
Respicio requested that the “misrepresentations and untruths” in the petition either be revised or the petition be rejected.
Respicio also wrote a letter to Paul Hunstman, GTA’s chairman of the Board of Directors. He referred to GTA making a $100,000 donation to mayors as a way of helping the community directly.
Respicio then stated the donation “is in stark contrast” to what what was explained in the FCC petition before also requesting Huntsman direct GTA to “amend (its) filing and remove the false and misleading statements contained therein.”
Although Respicio didn’t receive a response to either letter as of Friday afternoon, according to Port spokesperson Bernadette Sterne, GTA Chief Operating Officer Andrew Gayle told The Guam Daily Post after Respicio’s initial announcement he would write to the FCC that no offense was intended when it filed the petition.
“We’re just trying to state the facts. … We’ve gone through a natural disaster, … a Category 4 storm. … Things are going to have to be recovered so we were just trying to present the facts; we weren’t trying to poke at anybody,” Gayle told the Post on Wednesday.
Port Authority of Guam General Manager Rory J. Respicio makes remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony on April 19.
