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Why print still matters
In July, we were notified by the U.S. Library of Congress that it has selected our website, pacificislandtimes.com , for inclusion in the...
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From the publisher's desk
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
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Sep 5
Selective elective amnesia
Guam’s public schools didn’t open on time. It was absurdly predictable— a ready-made, recyclable headline from years past. Only this...
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Aug 8
The Article V test: Who will reinforce the US for Guam's defense?
Any attack on Guam or other territories in the Pacific, “even if outside of the geographic scope of Article V, would almost certainly...
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May 31
The lawyers’ dilemma
In 2012, Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington School of Law, discussed the apparently unresolved issue of attorney-client...
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May 8
Free and open what?
"Free and open Indo-Pacific." With no full understanding of it, we often hear this catchphrase from every Pacific island leader and every...
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Apr 4
The inherent dilemma
Pending in the Supreme Court of Guam is a request for declaratory judgment filed by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, who is seeking clarification...
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Mar 7
Legislating menstruation
When people with fancy titles gather in summits and conferences, they coin technocratic phrases that are repeated in subsequent summits...
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Jan 27
Farewell to a visionary
When I came to visit Peter Sgro at Guam Regional Medical City after his back surgery a couple of months ago, I found papers stacked up on...
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Dec 18, 2023
The year of grand gestures and pending promises
In August, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources conducted a field congressional hearing on Guam to "examine the importance of...
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Nov 3, 2023
A jigsaw puzzle: How do you solve a problem like Guam Memorial Hospital?
In the midst of a recent oversight hearing at the Guam legislature, Lilian Perez-Posadas, administrator of Guam Memorial Hospital,...
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Oct 8, 2023
RECA: The holy grail for Guam's radiation survivors
A cloud of trepidation hovers over the Pacific island states and territories in the face of Japan’s move to go ahead with the disposal of...
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Sep 6, 2023
You snooze you lose
China is a relentless leviathan and there are governments that would embrace it— if the price is right Pacific island leaders came with...
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Aug 8, 2023
Serious problem, farcical solution
“So let me get this straight: I go to the grocery store and buy a pound of sliced ham in a plastic bag, a loaf of bread in a plastic bag,...
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Jul 6, 2023
Till the next typhoon
How did Guam fare after Mawar? It depends on whom you ask. The answer depends on one’s temperament and previous disaster experience. It...
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Jun 4, 2023
Surviving Mawar
On the gloomy morning of May 26, we woke to an apocalyptic-like life, disconnected from the rest of the world— no power, no internet, no...
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Apr 27, 2023
Show me the money
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero dreaded Bill 12-37, a straightforward measure with a clear end: just show us the lease and tell us what you’re...
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Apr 12, 2023
War on gobbledygook
Do you know how the soon-to-be built Guam missile defense architecture will function to protect the island from any potential missile...
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Mar 6, 2023
The outsider
The mending of Pacific unity restores regionalism, but Guam remains excluded Regional leaders settled their differences in Nadi at last...
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Feb 6, 2023
The great egg-flation
First, there was Covid. Then, a war in Ukraine. And now, eggs? How did the breakfast staple suddenly find itself sharing the world...
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Jan 10, 2023
The war on abortion is not over
There’s no returning to the “dark days” of the “back-alley” procedures, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said when she vetoed the Guam Heartbeat...
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Dec 8, 2022
Post-election in the post-Covid season
The November elections are over. Call it banal, but there is no easier way to cap the election season than this hackneyed opening line....
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Nov 2, 2022
A debate about debates
The University of Guam’s Great Debate is the Super Bowl of Guam politics— a primetime pre-election event that typically sees hundreds of...
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Oct 4, 2022
Pampered with attention
Picked apart by China and heavily courted by the United States, the Pacific island region has become the superpowers' battleground for...
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Sep 1, 2022
Guam’s political idiosyncrasy
Incumbent governors rarely lose party renomination. They have built-in political machinery that includes people who are currently holding...
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Aug 11, 2022
There is no such thing as 'pro-abortion'
People who are “pro-life” are “anti-abortion.” But “pro-choice” advocates are not necessarily “pro-abortion” or “anti-life.” Several...
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Jul 14, 2022
The Fifth Branch: Where citizens are in charge
Gone are the days when the traditional media was the gatekeeper of information and the exclusive distributor of news. Social media tore...
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Jun 11, 2022
Gun laws and Guam's Castle Doctrine
It happened again. Shots rang out. Children ran for their lives. Bodies fell. The horrific school shooting that killed 19 children and...
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May 3, 2022
Every chance to ‘milk’ the feds
Life is pretty much back to normal. With Covid-19 infections consistently dwindling and yielding statistics that bring a certain level of...
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Apr 7, 2022
A ghost of the dark years
I remember that day— Feb. 25, 1986. I was then a teenager. My family stood outside the iron gates of Malacañang Palace among a massive...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Mar 6, 2022
The politics of public health in the time of Covid
Public health has often been the staple of politics and our government— regardless of the political party and no matter who is running...
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Feb 5, 2022
Some are more equal than others
America loves to talk about “equality,” a subject that is ironically difficult to talk about in America. Last month, Reps. Carolyn...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Jan 1, 2022
From the beat: Gerry writes 30
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. I have...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Dec 9, 2021
The worst year? 2021 around the Pacific
We thought 2020 was the worst year ever. We heard it from friends and commentators. We read it on social media. We even said it...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Nov 7, 2021
When abnormal becomes the new normal
Dr. Anthony Fauci said we are likely to return to normalcy by May 2022. We are not holding our breath. When we’ve lost confidence even in...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Oct 4, 2021
In memory of Abed Younis
The late Abed Younis, my former boss and founder of Marianas Variety, never caved in to intimidation. In his typically deadpan tone, Mr....
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Sep 9, 2021
Convincing the inconvincible: Carrot and stick or a Rousseauian solution
No one trooped into the streets when the government dangled $10,000 in cash and brand-new cars to lure the vax stragglers to come out,...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Aug 13, 2021
Information crisis amid Information Age
The world of ideas and beliefs is like a flea market, where hawkers and barkers try to out-scream one another, each trying to pull the...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Jul 5, 2021
It was the worst of times, it was the best of times
Headed to recovery, Guam is submerged in an unexpected tsunami of resources it has never seen in history The Covid era is a perplexing...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Jun 30, 2021
Murder of the mind
(Following is an old column originally published May 22, 2014 in Marianas Variety News and Views. ) WARNING: This column can be offensive...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Jun 7, 2021
‘Simple people' vs the simple-minded
In March 2015, an episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” perfectly captured the comedic essence of the Insular Cases...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
May 23, 2021
Blast from the past: Memories of the old newsroom
I worked with Arnold Moss at Today (one of the Philippines' major broadsheets before it was acquired by another company), where I was a...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
May 7, 2021
Stopping Micronexit
It took them three months to apologize, but for the “Fiji faction” of the cleaved Pacific Islands Forum, it’s probably better late than...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Apr 8, 2021
The colonial legacy: Political corruption dates back to the Spanish period
In 2019, the University of Guam’s Regional Center for Public Policy released the results of a survey indicating that two-thirds of...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Mar 7, 2021
The backbone of economy
Running a small business isn’t a walk in the park. Small scale entrepreneurs have to confront high rents, taxes, other collateral...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Feb 2, 2021
OK, Kamala Harris is a woman. And?
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ election to the nation’s second highest office “is a testament to how far we have come,” said Felicia...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Jan 6, 2021
The baffling contradictions of the Covid-era economy
The Covid-stricken economy is full of dizzying paradoxes and ironies. More than 400 Guam businesses have blinked out of existence. Yet,...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Dec 6, 2020
The Matrix 2020
A sinister hacker released a malevolent virus that caused the world to stop and thrust everyone into a treadmill. We are going nowhere,...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Nov 1, 2020
A picture that paints a thousand words
"As a reliable compass for orienting yourself in this life, nothing is more useful than to accustom yourself to regarding this world as a...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Oct 11, 2020
Stranger than fiction
The truth, according to author Mitch Albom, is at the bottom of the pile, the first victim of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed. The truth...
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Sep 1, 2020
The social contract: What people expect in exchange for surrendering their freedom
“Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains.” The famous opening line to Rousseau’s “Social Contract” sums up our inescapable...
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