An elusive project: Guam governor's plan to build a new hospital continues to face setbacks

By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

A ranking military official said Guam needs to build a new hospital that will serve both the civilian and the military communities, “especially in times of conflict or natural disasters where we need to really have a structure that can address the challenges of mass casualties.”

“So, there is an agreement about the necessity of a new hospital, as our current hospital cannot meet the demands,” Hung Cao, undersecretary of the Navy and senior military official Guam, said after meeting with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero during his visit in October.

Cao said financing will be the subject of negotiations and the question is, “Where will the funding come from and so forth?”

It is an open-ended question.

On the home front, the governor's plan to build a new medical campus in Mangilao is riddled with polarizing questions and legal challenges. There is a lingering debate over the hospital site. And there is a policy clash: Should Guam build a new medical facility or invest in rehabilitating Guam Memorial Hospital?

Most recently, the proposed project hit a new snag when Superior Court Judge Elyze M. Iriarte struck down the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority's move to condemn the Mangilao properties designated as the hospital project site.

Iriarte pointed out that the proposed plan for the target land does not legally justify an exercise of eminent domain. She noted concerns, previously raised by other courts, that "a grant of the power of eminent domain is one of the attributes of sovereignty most fraught with the possibility of abuse and injustice.”

The court's decision subsequently prompted the 38th Guam Legislature to reject the governor's proposed bill authorizing the Guam Power Authority and the Guam Waterworks Authority to spend Guam's remaining $104 million in American Rescue Act funds on the development of utility infrastructure on the marked project site.

“Despite the continuous assertions coming out of Adelup, nothing is preventing the construction of a new hospital at a wide range of potential sites across our island," Speaker Frank Blas Jr. said. "The narrative that only one site is feasible has now been thoroughly discredited by sworn testimony."

Blas said the property acquisition "raises serious legal and procedural concerns about the entire effort undertaken by the governor’s office.”

He said the legislature should not intervene in any legal dispute between the governor and the attorney general, especially when those disputes are currently being resolved within the Judicial branch of our island’s government.

“With such large amounts of federal funds at stake, it is imperative that due diligence be given (by the attorney general, by the courts, and by the legislature and that the default move should not be to try to remove the referee with minutes left on the clock just because one team doesn’t like how he does his job,” he added.

Leon Guerrero, for her part, maintained that the administration "has done everything required—legally, procedurally and in good faith. We answered the questions. We revised the bill. We complied with the law. But we cannot comply with silence. We cannot comply with obstruction."

Sen. Sabrina Salas Matanane, chair of the health committee, said choosing the best location for a new medical facility must be based on merits—argued and processed by experts and the medical community—not political pressure.

"I don’t want to be bullied into supporting a bill that is less about literal power for the people of Mangilao and more about power to circumvent legal review," she said.

In Adelup, the governor slammed the legislature’s rejection of her bill. “When leaders refuse to act in a moment that demands action, when they choose delay over duty, when they stand still while the needs of the people grow—that is not oversight. That is abandonment. And that is what happened here,” she said.

“Now we wait for their plan—their plan to save this money under federal rules, their plan to build the hospital they say they support.”

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