Letters from Estaquio

George Estaquio has written letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News for quite a few years. 

I don't always agree with what he writes, but I welcome his perspective.

Estaquio is one of the last few of his generation of Chamoru leaders. He was born prior to World War II and came of age during he Japanese occupation of Guam. He attended college in the US and then returned to Guam to work with the local government. 

He was part of that postwar generation that saw their island and people worthy of something more than just the handouts from Uncle Sam. They were patriotic to Uncle Sam and didn't want to step outside or beyond his borders, but this didn't stop them from asserting that Guam should be treated better. 

If the conditions had been different, they might have imagined something more than being just a territory of the US, but we are all limited and constricted by the prevailing historical context of our time. 

Estaquio went on to work as the Chief of Staff for Tony Won Pat, the first non-voting delegate from Guam to the US Congress. 

All of these life experiences combined give him an important perspective, especially for those wanting to understanding in more depth things such as the elective governor act for Guam, the security clearance kept in place for Guam until 1962 and most definitely the Organic Act. 

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Organic Act was meant to be the starting point

by George C. Estaquio

Pacific Daily News

October 2, 2020

“The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves”

— William Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar"

 

A contingent of 70 Guam officials, led by the late Gov. Ricky Bordallo, traveled to Albuquerque on December 1983 to meet with Morris Udall, the chairman of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and Manuel Lujan Jr. of Albuquerque, the ranking member. The meeting site was a concession to the gentleman from New Mexico. Delegates Antonio Won Pat and the Virgin Islands’ Ron de Lugo were also present.

 

The confab agreed, among other things, for Guam to submit a draft commonwealth act to replace the Organic Act and constrain the federal bureaucracy from intruding into matters that are intra-territorial in scope and character.

 

But Guam’s commonwealth proposal included some trappings of free association, like Palau, and restrain on the plenary power of Congress through what was then known as the “mutual consent” provision in commonwealth covenant. It was a contentious proposal that even a benevolent committee was not willing to accept.

 

The draft act was dead on arrival in Washington.

 

So, as Julius Caesar would have told you: “the fault, dear editor was not in the Organic Act, but in Guam’s understanding of themselves and their capability.”

Guam’s triumvirate

 

The three wise men from Hagåtña were: Baltazar Jeronimo Bordallo; Franscisco Baza Leon Guerrero; and Won Pat. Guam’s triumvirate were community leaders who had served in the post-World War II Guam Congress.

 

B.J. Bordallo knew better than anyone else that American citizenship was the foundation for a viable self-government. He traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1936, with his colleague, F. B. Leon Guerrero, to petition Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to grant the CHamorus U.S. Citizenship.

 

His appeal for civil rights and citizenship was met with disdain by the Navy that upon his return home, the local Navy administration played hardball, imposing 1,000% tax on his property.

B.J. Bordallo devoted his entire political career, energy and resources toward this singular goal. The introduction of the first Guam citizenship bill in Congress by Sen. Ernest Gibson and the conferral of American Citizenship by the Organic Act of 1950 were his crowning achievements.

 

Francisco Baza Leon Guerrero, better known as Tun Kiko Suilo, had been agitating for local self- government for many years. When the Organic Act was finally passed in 1950, Tun Kiko knew that Guam’s quest for self-government was just beginning and more remained to be doneWon Pat was the third leg of Guam’s triumvirate. Both he and Tun Kiko testified before the Senate subcommittee on Interior and Insular Affairs on HR 7273, a bill to establish civil government on Guam. Both understood that the Organic Act was not meant to be a panacea and its enactment was not intended to forge a perfect union with Washington.

 

Paternalistic government

 

The Organic Act was born in Washington but its ideological sperm donors were Guam’s trio: B.J. Bordallo, Tun Kiko, WonPat (and others). Tun KIko was dubbed the “Father of the Organic Act,” a well-deserved accolade.

 

The people of Guam had no delusion that government under an Organic act was not like a bird’s egg that evolved and developed wings that can fly, sing and become independent. Self–determination is not unilateral nor self-activation. And in the 1950 Organic Act, Congress crafted a paternalistic form of government that was aspirational and relied on Washington for support and guidance.

 

George C. Eustaquio is a resident of Frederick, Maryland.