At the funeral for Maga'låhi Ed Benavente today, I got a chance to talk to former Governor of Guam Felix Camacho. When Felix Camacho was first elected the group Nasion Chamoru was in decline in terms of its political power. Angel Santos had been elected into the Guam Legislature years earlier and formally left the group. Nasion itself had continued to fight and gotten a number of reforms implemented around land for the landless and for families that had lost land after World War II to the US military. Felix Camacho, seeking to make a sort of peace with Nasion Chamoru, which had been a notorious thorn in the side of the previous administration, reached out to Ed Benavente and offered him a position in his cabinet. I remember that time well, as I had already started hanging out with members of the Colonized Chamoru Coalition and so I got to listen in while members of Nasion Chamoru discussed whether or not Ed should join with Camacho. I won't describe the deliberations in detail, but most agreed that since it would give Ed possible control over issues related to the return of lands to Chamorros, that it would be an important inroad. I remember leaning against his pick up truck, while he was mulling over the issue and how another activist had challenged his reasons for joining the administration. He said something along the lines of, "Forget the politics. If it gets lands back to our people, I'll dance with anyone." From 2013 to 2010, Ed served as the director for the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission.
Almost everyone on island has heard of the Chamorro Land Trust, even if they know almost nothing about it. They at least know something of it, even if their knowledge is a ridiculous caricature of what it is or represents. But fewer people know about the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission. In the press release in honor of Ed's passing that I helped write, we included this paragraph:
Maga’låhi Benavente also served as the director for both the Guam
Ancestral Lands Commission and the Commission on Decolonization. The
GALC was first created in order to facilitate the return of excess U.S.
federal lands to their original landowners, some of whom waited decades
for their lands to be returned. Through Maga’låhi Benavente’s efforts,
hundreds of acres were deeded back to their original owners, despite
pressure from the U.S. Federal government not to return them.
That was the conversation I shared with former Governor Camacho earlier today, discussing Ed's passion for getting the lands back to the original landowners, even if it meant defying the wishes of the US Federal Government. I know that there is much more to that issue, and I know that Ed was often at odds with his own boss during those years. But still, amidst a day where the memories seemed to teem like water splashing atop the sea in a rainstorm, it was still a touching testament.
Here are some articles below related to the Ancestral Land Commission and in particular those in the Tiyan area around the airport.
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Lease payments collected, not distributed to landowners
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
June 22, 2009
The Guam
Ancestral Lands Commission so far has collected about $400,000 from
leases and licenses to compensate original landowners who never will get
their land back, but it is unclear when that money will be paid out or
to how many people.
The commission still hasn't created rules or regulations for the
landowners trust, despite a law that requires it and despite the
findings in a 2006 report by the Office of the Public Auditor. There are
no rules for leases or licenses and no process for determining who
should be paid or how much.
Land has been leased or licensed by the commission without any
adopted rules, and several large parcels of Ancestral Lands Commission
property in Dededo and Mangilao are in the process of being leased to
the highest and best bidder. The target date for those leases is October
and December of this year.
Benny Crawford, who is chairman and spokesman for a local landowner's
task force, said he believes the process of leasing land to pay
ancestral owners is problematic and should be scrapped.
"I don't think government can represent my best interest," Crawford said about the leases.
Land is better than cash, he said, and the government of Guam should
instead identify land that can be transferred to the ancestral owners or
their heirs.
The Guam Ancestral Lands Commission was created in 1999 to administer
the transfer of excess federal land to its original owners. The
military on Guam had downsized, leaving behind large tracts of excess
land, and GovGuam's policy was to return it to its original owners, who
had not been properly compensated during the condemnation process.
But GovGuam still is using some excess federal land, so the
commission has been leasing or licensing some of the returned federal
land --"Spanish crown land" --to earn money to eventually compensate
those landowners. Spanish crown land is property that belonged to the
former Spanish government on Guam and which therefore has no ancestral
owners to claim it.
Crawford is chairman of a task force recently created by law to
identify land, including crown land that can be transferred to the
ancestral owners of property at Tiyan.
The Tiyan land -- about 1,400 acres -- was returned to Guam by the
federal government as part of the former Naval Air Station Agana, but it
was not returned to its original owners because the airport still is
using it.
Guam law currently is setting up a land exchange only for Tiyan
families, but Crawford said he believes the same process should be
expanded to include all ancestral landowners whose land is being used by
GovGuam.
As an example, he said, ancestral land along the back road to
Andersen Air Force Base still is being held by GovGuam for future school
construction.
If any ancestral land remains with GovGuam after land is distributed
to ancestral owners, it can be leased to benefit those whose property
still is being held by the federal government, such as the families who
owned land at Naval Station, Crawford said.
Crawford's task force completed its work this month, and submitted a
report to the Legislature June 9, recommending that 976.92 acres of
Spanish crown land in Dededo and Mangilao be moved into a new "Tiyan
Trust" so it can be given to the Tiyan families. The report states 37
heirs to Tiyan property have been identified.
Crawford said Gov. Felix Camacho now has until July 9 to submit a
bill to lawmakers, which would transfer that property from the Ancestral
Lands inventory to the new Tiyan Trust.
In the meantime, the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission continues to
collect thousands of dollars each month from businesses or government
agencies that use ancestral land. The money is deposited into a trust
account at First Hawaiian Bank, with no plan for what to do with it.
According to the 1999 Guam law that created the commission, the
commission needs to adopt rules for the trust through the government's
administrative adjudication process.
The commission has not adopted rules and it currently is not working
on any, said commission board Chairwoman Anita Orlino, who said the
commission is focusing its efforts on returning land to its original
owners and generating as much money as possible for the trust.
She said the commission could draft rules and regulations "very soon," but she declined to say when that might happen.
"Right now, their (the board's) biggest concern is to build up the
trust account," said commission Executive Director Ed Benavente.
The public auditor, in a 2006 report, was critical of the
commission's decision to lease property without first adopting rules,
and noted that licenses for property were issued "arbitrarily and
inconsistently" with some licensees receiving "relatively favorable
terms and conditions."
The year after the audit was released, the Ancestral Lands Commission
entered into an agreement with the Guam Economic Development Authority,
which has taken over the leasing process for crown land. Under the
agreement, the ancestral lands board must give final approval to any
lease.
Director Benavente said the commission has no expertise in leasing property, which is why it has been working with GEDA.
"They're expected to know what it is to lease," he said.
Leases for the use of ancestral land now are bid competitively by
GEDA, which requires a minimum annual payment of at least 8 percent of
the property's appraised value, among other compensation.
That's the standard lease amount in the real estate industry, said
Mike Cruz, GEDA's real property division manager. Other standard lease
requirements for ancestral land are: the payment of at least 2.5 percent
of the gross annual business income from use of the property; and an 11
percent share of the gross rent paid by anyone who subleases the
property. Those who offer to pay more get a higher score during GEDA's
selection process, according to requests for proposals issued earlier
this year by GEDA.
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Tiyan landowners storm Adelup
by Janjeera Hail
KUAM
September 21, 2009
A
protest was held at Adelup this morning as Tiyan landowners are upset
about the governor's decision to appoint his assistant legal counsel as
the acting administrator at the Ancestral Lands Commission. Tiyan Land
Exchange Task Force members made sure their message was heard loud and
clear this morning at the Governor's Complex.
Benny Crawford,
Task Force chairman, proclaimed, "It's not the right kind of person to
be down there!" He would also say, "We would like for him to rescind
that appointment to Ray Haddock and appoint it to someone else."
Task
Force members held a peaceful protest at Adelup this morning, calling
for the removal of Haddock, who has been appointed by the governor to
head up the Ancestral Lands Commission while director Ed Benavente is
out on medical leave. Task Force members maintain Haddock isn't the
right person for the job.
The governor's assistant legal counsel
is the son-in-law of Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Torres, who is
the governor's brother-in-law.
Crawford says the acting
director's relationship with his in-laws raises a serious conflict of
interest. You see, the Ancestral Lands Commission contends they are
entitled to profits from land the Torres family sold. "The attorney
general realized that the family's attorney didn't follow the
instruction to have the court determine the legality of the sale of the
property, so they came back to Ancestral Lands months ago and the
attorney general says, 'Let me represent the Ancestral Lands against the
Torres family,'" said Crawford. "Maybe we can recoup some of those
funds, which I think are about $15 million."
Haddock, however,
says the concerns are unfounded, stressing that none of the work he'll
be doing as acting director relates to the Torres case. "If there was
some type of action, then I would naturally recuse myself from that
particular matter. But I think it was very important and I think the
governor recognized I had some service that I could provide to the
Ancestral Lands Commission."
But landowners say that there is an
appearance of impropriety, with Haddock even leading the agency. "Ray
Haddock being down at Ancestral Lands might really jeopardize some of
the paperwork, and it's just not a good thing. We really don't think
he's the right person, it's really a conflict of interest," continued
Crawford in opposition of the chief executive's decision.
Despite
the concerns raised this morning, Governor Felix Camacho maintains the
concerns of a conflict are "ridiculous". "Absolutely not," he
responded. "[Haddock] is a professional, he must adhere to certain
standards and the like, and in his capacity as legal counsel here for
the Governor's Office he upholds those standards. And so their claims
against him are totally absurd and I will not pay attention to it."
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Original landowners ready for fight over Tiyan
by
Mindy Fothergill,
KUAM News
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
It's
a controversy that's been brewing for months now. As KUAM News has been
reporting, the federal government is pushing for the return of Tiyan
lands designated for the construction of an access road. The problem is
that same property has been returned to original landowners who have
since renovated and moved into the homes.
The government has been
put on notice and now has less than thirty days to respond to the feds
who visited last month to assess the situation. What will happen to
original landowners who have waited decades for the return of their
property with a possibility of that land being taken back again?
Catherine
McCollum is frustrated - primarily that the federal government wants to
take back her family's property in Tiyan that was recently returned.
After decades of waiting for her grandfather Bernardo Punzalan's
property, McCollum isn't going to leave without a fight. "The people are
here to stay. If they do get up and leave, my heart goes out to them
because maybe they don't have the fight in them, but the ones I've
spoken to are willing to put up a fight," she told KUAM News.
Now
with the local government's looming deadline to explain why the land
was returned, McCollum says she wanted to send a message to the
government to protect the interests of original landowners. This morning
the tamuning resident staged a one-person protest in Tiyan today
parking her car in the middle of the road, a Guam flag prominently
raised.
She was arrested on charges of obstructing a public highway, assault on a police officer, and resisting arrest."
This
is the first of many fights...a knee on my rib is not going to stop me
from going out there and making my statement again," McCollum says. She
feels appalled that elected leaders have failed to fight for original
landowners and property that she maintains is rightfully theirs, adding,
"The elected officials should come up and start saying no enough is
enough you guys leave these people alone. They're home now. You don't do
this to my people. Don't tell me what to do on my land. He's got the
power. They've all got the power but they're not doing anything about
this power."
United States Department of Transportation Federal
Highway Administration division administrator Abraham Wong wrote a
letter to Governor Felix Camacho, expressing concerns about the
Government of Guam's "unauthorized actions".
In October 2000 a
quitclaim deed conveyed Tiyan properties to Guam's public sector for the
sole purpose of building a highway - specifically to develop the land
for three parkways from Route 20, Route 16a, and an extension of Route
10. The deed prohibited the government from further transferring the
property without the consent of the Federal Highway Administration. On
May 31, 2005 the government, through the Guam Ancestral Lands
Commission, conveyed the Tiyan property to original landowners like
McCollum's family. A reversionary clause in the contract provides that
in the event the government decides not to build the highway, the
property would be given back to the feds.
Wong threatens that
without correction, Guam's actions may result in reversion of the land,
the withholding of federal funds or other legal action.
Governor
Camacho says there's no easy answer to the predicament the government is
in, but he was made clear that the feds are threatening to pull money
if the property isn't taken back. "There's threats of losing federal
dollars in grant money in the millions of dollars either way there's a
high price to pay," he told KUAM News.
The Governor says his
legal counsel is currently reviewing the feds' letter to draft a
response. For now, Camacho says he's looking for a win-win situation.
When lawmakers passed legislation to return excess lands to original
landowners, the Governor says he was told by certain senators that he
refused to identify that it was unlikely the federal government would
take the land back."
I believe their bluff has been called and
we're stuck with having to decide," said the Governor. "Either way
there's going to be a loss one way or another, either to the landowners
or to the government or to the highway. There's no easy answer here and
not everyone's going to be satisfied in the end."
It's not an
answer residents like Catherine McCollum are pleased to hear. "This is
sad - it's really sad," she dejectedly expressed. "It's a stab in our
back when our own people have to do this to our own people."
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Camacho pleads Tiyan case in D.C.
Governor seeks compromise solution to land dispute
By Oyaol Ngirairikl
Pacific Daily News
March 2, 2006
Gov. Felix Camacho is pushing for a middle ground in the Tiyan land issue in Washington, D.C.
"Our
people can have their land and we can build a road," Camacho said
before the Interagency Group on Insular Affairs yesterday.
Leaders
from U.S. territories, including Guam, the Virgin Islands and American
Samoa attended the annual meeting with representatives from federal
agencies, such as the Department of the Interior, Department of
Transportation and the Department of Defense. The interagency group's
task is to recommend policy to help territories address issues that
require the approval of more than one federal agency. The property along
the Tiyan cliff line was among many parcels that the U.S. military took
after World War II for defense purposes. In 2000, the federal
government returned the property to the local government, which in turn
returned the parcels to heirs of the Chamorro people documented to have
owned the property.
Last year, Federal Highway Administration
Division Administrator Abraham Wong sent a letter to Camacho, saying the
property was given to the local government in order to build a highway,
and unless the property is used as a highway, it must be returned to
the federal government.
Camacho has said federal officials fail to recognize the suffering and sacrifice of Guam's people.
"Our
people allowed (the) U.S. military to use this land for defense
purposes, but that is clearly not their need anymore, so it rightfully
belongs in the hands of our people," he said in his plea for help.
Camacho and Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo expect to meet with U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta today.
Descendants
of the previous landowners have either moved in to the Tiyan homes or
have started working on plans to use the property in some other manner.
Some of the descendants have said they want to retain their newly
received properties.
Descendants have voiced their displeasure at
the turn of events that threaten to remove them from Tiyan by staging
peaceful demonstrations.
Land is an emotional issue throughout
Micronesia because of its ties to the island cultures of the region,
said Micronesian historian, author and University of Guam professor Dirk
Ballendorf.
Ballendorf said the land issue goes deeper for the
Chamorro people, who have been under American tutelage for more than a
century.
"Guam, in essence, is a piece of real estate owned by
the United States. It's difficult for many Chamorro people to accept
that and you can understand why -- it's their homeland."
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GIAA launches public relations blitz
'Project Airport Now' seeks to inform despite tensions with landowners
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
slimtiaco@guampdn.com
The
island's airport is in the middle of a $95,000 public relations effort,
including broadcast and print advertisements, brochures, and a press
conference, to "elicit public support and participation" for airport
issues, projects and activities that affect the community.
It's
called "Project Airport Now," and the airport's board members approved
its budget more than a year ago, according to the board's minutes.
The
A.B. Won Pat Guam International Airport Authority has been distributing
information about ongoing and planned capital improvement projects at
Tiyan, and last week issued a report crediting the airport with
contributing $1.7 billion to the island's economy last year.
It's
no coincidence that the airport's message about its positive
contribution to the island is being sent just as ground is being broken
for the commercial development of former ancestral land at Tiyan -- land
coveted by families who have been returned only a fraction of what was
condemned by the federal government five decades ago.
"It's a
proactive approach to tell the people of Guam, including the subsequent
claimants of those (Tiyan) properties, that these are the ABC's and
XYZ's of what we are doing right now," said airport Executive Director
Jess Torres. "Development of the Tiyan Industrial Park is part and
parcel to our development. It just happens to be on the first part of
the old enlisted (housing) area."
The government of Guam's policy
is to return, through the Ancestral Lands Commission, excess federal
land to the families who owned it before it was condemned. In the case
of the former military housing area at Tiyan, which is adjacent to the
airport runway, only the strip of land between the road and cliffline
was returned. Most of the land once owned by the families is on the
other side of the street and was deeded by federal officials
specifically to the airport for its use.
The airport erected a
multimillion-dollar fence in June to separate its property, and last
week Triple B Forwarders broke ground on a $2.5 million shipping
facility on the land. The airport expects to collect $1.6 million in
lease payments from Triple B over 10 years.
Torres said the
airport's goal is to do, "What is best for our island. What is best for
our people, instead of just a select few."
He said if the
commercial projects envisioned at the Tiyan Industrial Park materialize,
the children of the ancestral owners, "very likely would end up working
for these companies."
Opposition
"I'm against building more
stuff. There's no jungle anymore. What's Guam without jungle?" said
27-year-old John Leon Guerrero, who lives with his cousin in one of the
former military houses returned to its ancestral owners.
Asked
what should happen to the fenced-in land across the street, Leon
Guerrero said, "It should go back to the people who own it... Jobs are
good, but where's Guam gonna go? It's gonna be one big industrial park."
Torres
said, "We've taken a position that we don't have any excess lands to
return to anybody." He said the former military property was not deeded
to the government of Guam as a whole, but to the airport as a specific
entity, and only for its use to benefit the public.
"I don't
think it's fair. Why give partial (to the families), and claim the other
side (of the road) to be theirs, when actually the whole lot belongs to
my family," said 38-year-old Monica DeVera, who has lived in the former
military housing along the cliffline for about 2 years.
Her family's ancestral lot is 91,000 square meters large -- most of it in the hands of the airport.
The
approximate value of her family's entire ancestral property, including
the majority portion held by the airport, is about $4.9 million, based
on comparable property values in the area.
"Give it back to the landowners," she said about the land the airport has fenced in. "If not, then compensate them for it."
The
airport stands to receive millions of dollars through the lease of the
property, but Torres said the airport's bond agreements, as well as the
deed to the property, prohibit the airport from using that money as
compensation to the families.
"What more do they need to expand?
For what?" DeVera asked. "It's not gonna benefit me. It's just going to
cause more headaches."
Global economy
The airport terminal
itself has about three times more passenger capacity than Guam currently
needs, but airport officials said the development of the industrial
park is intended to diversify the airport, beyond serving passengers.
The revenue that's generated from the property will help the airport
make its bond payments and will pay for any needed increases in airport
operations, they said.
"The benefit would be that Guam would
continue to be in a position to grow the economy," said airport board
Chairman Frank Blas. "If we don't have these warehouses, these people
who are transporting cargo from one place to another -- they'll probably
go to another airport."
Blas said if Guam were to isolate itself, then the airport probably wouldn't need any further development.
"But
we can't help but be part of this growing global economy," he said. "If
you don't do what the airlines require, you're going to be left
behind."
Sen. Jesse Lujan, R-Tamuning, chairman of the
legislative aviation committee, said he supports continued development
of the airport-held property.
"If we can become a cargo hub ...
that's a great thing," he said. "It creates jobs, they become taxpayers,
and there's more economic activity."
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