Bordallo bounces

back as the Governor of Guam

Despite television advertise ments of President Ronald Reagan warmly endorsing him, Governor Paul M. Calvo was turned out of office in the November 2 general elections on Guam. He was defeated by Ricardo J. Bordallo, who was himself beaten by Calvo in the 1978 general election while serv ing his first four-year term as governor of Guam (January 1975-January 1979).

Calvo and Bordallo ran a fair campaign. But Calvo was harm ed by getting only lukewarm support from Senator Kurt Moy lan, who had been lieutenant governor previously with former Governor Carlos Camacho, and who had campaigned against Calvo in the September primary election. Senator Moylan’s dif ferences with Calvo go further back, to the 1978 general elec tion when he failed to get Cal vo’s support for himself. Bet ween these two general elections the two have sniped at each other every now and then.

Further trouble for Calvo was the publicity given to the paving of private roads, which started to mount in the summer and con tinued despite a succession of newspaper and television stories on it, and the hiring of temporary Guam government workers. Esti mates of the number of these temporary workers who began to be hired in August, range from 800 to 1500; all of them received one-time $BOO cost-of-living ad justments to their salaries several weeks before the election. This alone cost the government about $1.7 million.

Bordallo, on the other hand, was riding a wave of sentiment for his Democratic Party, whose slogan in this campaign was “People First’’. Conspicuous elements in the upswing in sup port for him were the 1981 teachers’ strike called in re sponse to the Guam Legislature’s hefty pay rise of December 1980,

and public dissatisfaction with

increasing unemployment and

rising prices. The final vote was Bordallo-Reyes 15,199 and Cal vo Perez 13,797.

A run-off for governor was considered after the votes had been counted. This was prompt ed by vague wording in the con stitution which says the governor must get a majority of votes cast in any election, a majority being 50 per cent plus one. The issue was whether votes cast meant votes cast for governor or total votes cast in the election. Since not everyone voted for governor,

Bordallo-Reyes garnered only

49.6 per cent of total votes cast, or 0.4 per cent short of a majori ty. But in a lengthy debate before certifying the election results, the Guam Election Commission had the good sense to reject a run-off, but undertook to ensure that pro per wording was enacted for the next general election.

The most telltale sign of De mocratic strength was seen in the election of 21 senators for Guam’s unicameral legislature.

The last, 16th, Guam Legislature was dominated by the Republi cans, who controlled all legisla tive committees with the 11 to 10 majority. During the early hours of vote-counting, which began in earnest two hours after the polls closed at 7 p.m. on November 2, it was apparent that the Democ rats would enjoy a substantial majority in the 17th legislature.

In the end, they gained a total of 14, exactly the two-thirds major ity needed to override gubernato rial vetoes of legislation, though that should not be as significant a factor with a Democratic gover nor as it might had Calvo been re-elected.

The top vote-getter among senatorial candidates was the ev er-popular Joe Ada, Calvo’s lieutenant-governor, who got 17.570. The other Republicans elected were Thomas Tanaka, Speaker of the 16th legislature

(15,345 votes), Marilyn Manibusan (14,691), Eddie Duenas (13,647), Antonio Unpingco / n Kn Aif j I F 5 ;n d ’ A rec * Lamorena (12,831) and James Underwood (12,690). In a surprise move, Mr Underwood was chosen minority laoHor . „ *c ■ r- t.*leader to stave off m-fightmg between Senators Ada and Tanaka.

On the Democratic side the popular Car. Gutierrez led in the voting (15,798), followed by two haoles, attorney Dan Parkinson (15,151) and former high school principal Ted Nelson (14,792).

The third haole to be elected was Guam Federation of Teachers president, Marcia Hartsock (13,699), who campaigned on the strength of issues raised in the 1981 teachers’ strike.

The remainder of the Democ-

ratic senators are Elizabeth Ar ricola (14,436 votes), Joe San Agustin (14,354), Frank Gutier rez (14,307), Edward Charfauros (14,205), Franklin Quitugua (14,060), Frank Santos (13,498), and Pilar Liyan (12,603). There are more women four in the 17th Guam Legislature than in any previous one.

Ballots cast for governor and for the senators were counted by a computer at the University of Guam’s Health and Science Building. Due to some minor technical problems, the ballots were not counted until nearly noon the day after the election.

Hand counting of ballots for re tention or rejection of the four Superior Court judges (all four of who were retained), as well as for the representative to the U.S.

Congress, proceeded much more smoothly and was completed by early morning.

In the race for the Washington delegate, veteran Antonio B.

Won Pat handily won re-election despite having trailed in the ear liest returns behind General Ben Blaz (retired). Won Pat received 15,628 votes to Blaz’s 14,578.

Blaz had a strong showing in the September primary election, and was expected to mount a stronger challenge than he did.

During the vote-counting, Guam’s three AM radio stations and two television stations broadcast results and made fore casts using computers. One radio station also broadcast in Japanese every half-hour to summarise re sults for the benefit of Japanese speaking residents and any inter ested tourists.

With a sweep of governorship, the Washington representative, and a substantial legislative ma jority, Guam’s Democrats are about to dominate politics here

for the next two years and to govern and legislate without the

degree of inter-party bickering

common under Calvo’s term as governor. Bordallo promises to push hard in the areas of alterna tive energy sources, unemploy ment, education, and possibly for Guam’s transformation into an international financial centre, a notion stimulated by the pros pect of a possible mainland Chin ese take-over of Hongkong in the

coming years.

Mark L. Berg.

“Slavery” in Irian

Jaya Author

The Asmat people of Irian Jaya are being used as virtual slaves felling timber, it was claimed in December.

Australian author Julie South wood said the Asmats are being exploited by two Indonesian tim ber companies which instruct them to cut down trees in their traditional and custom-held for est lands.

An Indonesian newspaper re port in November had said the Asmats spent from one to one and-a-half months in the forest, then had to wait months for their pay.

The report said people in one sub-district are forced to load the logs on a ship, then ordered to go and fell more logs to complete the cargo without being paid anything.

“All they get is a few packs of tobacco or an axehead as a labor bond,” said Ms South wood.

The report said the Asmat peo ple are powerless to resist open ly, to demand higher wages or other improvements “because they are constantly terrorised by officials”

Ms Southwood, who has just completed a book, Indonesia Law, Propaganda and Terror, said the author of the report was summoned by the Indonesian Ar my’s Security Command and or dered to stop publishing further material.

Miss Southwood said there are 32,000 Indonesian soldiers in the former Dutch colony. She added that since 1962, when Indonesia annexed West Irian, 190,000 West Papuans approximately 20 percent of the population have disappeared.

On the way back: Ricardo Bor dallo (facing camera) in the middle of his “People First”

Democratic Party campaign which has put him back into office as Governor of Guam. He was photographed mingling with the crowd at an informal celebration which followed his victory in the Democratic prim ary election in September. The other picture shows section of the streetside signposts which accompanied heavy campaign ing during the primaries.

Paul Calvo, defeated Republi can Governor: He ran a “fair campaign”, but could have had more support from within his own party.