Bordallo’s last act of defiance

Guam

FORMER Guam Governor Ricardo J. Bordallo, hours before he was scheduled to leave the island for a Federal prison on Mainland United States, chained himself to the statue of a 17th Century Chamorro chief, covered his body with the island’s flag, and shot himself.

It was the last act of defiance by the tempestuous Democratic politician who had been prosecuted for corruption of his office by the Reagan Administration’s attorneys. His suicide he fired a single shot from a .38 caliber pistol into his head took place on the Plaza in down town Agana just at the start of the even ing rush hour on January 31. Only hours before he had been the guest of honour at a going-away luncheon put on by his wife, Senator Madeleine Bordallo, at the Senate Office Building. Those who saw him at the lunch said he appeared to be in good spirits.

Bordallo, 63, a strong Chamorro nationalist, had likened himself to Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King in recent interviews. His suicide, and claim to martyrdom at the hands of the Mainlanders, may turn out to be a blow to the Bush Administration and Guam Republicans, and probably will play a major role in the November elections, in which Mrs Bordallo was already regarded as a strong candidate for the Governorship should she decide to seek it.

A larger-than-life figure, Bordallo had been a major fixture in post-World War II politics on the island. The only person elected to two terms as Governor of the Territory, he also had been the Demo cratic Party’s only candidate for that office since it became an elective one.

After fifteen years in the Territorial Senate, he was the Democratic Party’s

candidate for Governor in 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982 and 1986, winning in 1974 and 1982, and losing in the other years.

He served as Governor from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1987. The

continuing popularity of the family was

shown twice since the indictment in Mrs Bordallo’s substantial victories in her campaigns for the Territorial Senate.

Throughout his life Bordallo experi enced a series of dramatic peaks and val leys. A low point came during the Japanese occupation. The young Bordal lo, then in a forced-labour camp on Guam, was apparently regarded as a troublemaker by his captors. A Japanese officer singled him out during a lineup of 200 workers, slapped him around, and told him that his attitude was such that he was to pick up a stick and kill a dog tied to a nearby tree. “Out of sheer fear on my part, I beat it to death,” he recalled forty years later to the Pacific Daily News. “I was shaking inside; it was either I killed it, or I was killed.”

Bordallo, at one point, had built up a series of businesses worth, it is said, as much as US$25 million; his organisations sold insurance and Toyotas, chartered helicopters, and engaged in real estate development. In the early seventies the real estate deals soured and the business went into bankruptcy; he said that he subsequently paid off $l9 million in debts.

The corruption charges, which sent many of his colleagues to jail in plea bargain arrangements, centered around the Governor’s alleged dealings with Japanese businessmen. There were 17 charges in all; a jury convicted him of 10 of them and dismissed the other seven.

Then a Mainland appeals court over ruled eight of the ten remaining counts

on the narrowest of technical grounds: while US law makes it a crime for a governor of a state to accept bribes, it does not specifically cover such actions by a governor of a territory.

The two remaining counts were sub sidiary ones to the main charges for ex ample, the Governor was convicted of

causing Johnny Carpio, a local engineer,

to lie to federal official about a US$6O,OOO transaction which the Gov ernment regarded as a bribe and Bordal lo said was a campaign contribution.

Bordallo was sentenced to four years in prison for these two offenses, but was expected to be ready for release a little more than a year later. He was sche duled to go to Boron, a federal facility in California; designed for white collar cri minals, it is regarded on the Mainland as

a relatively pleasant institution.

Bordallo, however, did not share this view, telling reporters days before his suicide: “My own instincts make me be lieve that I will not be coming back from Boron alive ... I’m not dwelling on how it will happen. I will be in the hands of people who are masters of intrigue.”

The late Governor was both a builder and a strong Chamorro nationalist. As Governor he pushed for a more self government for the island; he was the major force behind the Guam Common wealth Bill.

As a builder he caused the US$l2 mil lion conversion of an elementary school at Adelup into a sumptuous Governor’s office. (There was some speculation that Governor Ada would not use the place, but he chose to do so.) Bordallo was frequently criticised for his expansive spending policies which led, among other things, to a refurbished airport and to the erection of the statue of Chief Quipuha, the first island chief to embrace Christianity. It was at Chief Quipuha’s feet that Bordallo ended his life. □