#respicio

Effective, quality leadership depends on trust - and the loyalty of followers.  So, one must question why a leader would lie, when the negative consequences of being caught in that lie are easily understood. A leader, especially an elected leader, lies and breaches the trust and loyalty of their followers when they have an agenda to advance, or to support a decision that cannot stand up to scrutiny based on the truth.

At a recent social function, a Tumon businessman asked my opinion on Bill 19 and Adelup's stance on the deceitful measure intended to privatize Guam Memorial Hospital to the exclusive benefit of the Calvo portion of the family controlling their insurance company, and to create a  legalized monopoly on gambling devices for one company. When I asked the deep-pocket GOP supporter what he thought about the matter, he snapped without hesitation, referring to Eddie Calvo, "Bitch MUST be drunk, if he thinks anybody is going to believe that bill has anything to do with paying off hospital debts!" (Thanks to Guamblog follower "Speed Racer" for the graphic submission, manipulated for this post.)

A History Lesson Such is the case with Bill 19 and the relentless cheerleading, lobbying and lying to the public by Eddie Calvo, Rory Respicio and Dennis Rodriguez Jr. Despite their desperate attempt to deceive people, it is quite obvious the public rejects the bullshit.

From the beginning, Guamblog has written that Bill 20, a parasitic measure crafted by individuals associated with Gov. Champ Calvo's law firm, Calvo's Selectcare, and handcarried to Rodriguez Jr. by a doctor from GMH, who is to be partnered with the Calvo's new clinic planned for Dededo, was a trojan horse.

Rodriguez deceptively claimed Bill 20 as his own, and introduced the bill that sought to sneakily create a virtual privatized GMH, which would then, through the Calvo-appointed Board of Trustess at GMH, hand the hospital over to the Calvos a their very own cash cow.

Rodriguez Jr. did this, as part of his sellout agreement to Calvo for a sweetheart tax forgiveness deal for his mother and father worth as much as $2 million, a result of the family failing to pay taxes for years on earned income - from business activities managed by now-senator Rodriguez Jr. at the time.

The trojan horse measure nearly snuck through the sleepy halls of Hesler with little challenge until Guamblog began making noises and causing questions to be asked by mainstream media about the occulted, tricky details legislative staffers failed to read, along with their bosses.

A typical lie is in the form of a declarative statement: “Trust me; you will be rewarded for your efforts in due time.”

Really? When? Why not now, and under what circumstances? Whenever a statement opens with the words “trust me” or “honestly” alarm bells should go off in your head.

If the person saying these things were trustworthy or honest, they wouldn’t need to preface their statement by saying so. Their actions would portray that honesty and trustworthiness.

In 2010, one of the messages splayed on countless billboards and ads for Calvo/Tenorio kept telling people they were honest and trustworthy. Uh huh. Sure.

The bill stalled temporarily as Calvo and Rodriguez regrouped to scheme a run around the impasse. In the interim, Pete "Dongo" Pangelinanv and Gil Shinohara - who "run" Rodriguez's legislative office - connived their own plot to entangle the Calvo/Tenorio administration in the very strings they used to puppetize Rodriguez.

The end result was leeching onto senator Chris Duena's Bill 19, a worthy piece of legislation on its own merits, to create a measure that:

a.) creates an avenue for Guam Memorial Hospital to be virtually privatized to the exclusive benefit of the Calvo clan, and

b.) permanently legalizes the erstwhile illegal gambling machines belonging to "Dongo" and estimated to produce as much as $30 million annually...$30 million that no one has yet asked: "What happened to all that money already generated BEFORE the machines were made illegal?"

And yes - despite the shady legal advice that is an extension of the awful lying habit of the Calvo/Tenorio administration, these machines were and are still illegal.

The katfight in the human fishbowl is not over! Not by a long shot. After slipping on a velvet glove before verbally bitchslapping speaker Judi Won Pat this past Saturday, senator Rory Respicio continues the political smackdown by slipping some brass (balls) into them thar gloves!

Apparently, Respicio has finally come to the realization that his finish last in the 2010 elections gives him no shot in hell to run for governor in 2014 and his only chance at making like George and Weezy Jefferson is to take out the increasingly-irrelevant speaker.

As chair of the committee that makes up the rules the legislature is supposed to play by, Respicio has cobbled together Resolution 181 - a smackdown set up that will remove Won Pat from her leadership role, with the help of the Republicans and the senators that gambling empresario Pedro Dongo Pangelinan has in his back pocket.

Currently, it takes 8 members of the Committee on Rules to remove the Speaker of the Guam legislature or any of the leadership. Respicio has now made it possible for any combo of 8 senators at-large to do the trick...and following the vote to legalize Dongo's gaming machines under the tricky ploy of helping the hospital, it looks like Respicio will do just that.

Resolution 181 says:

"WHEREAS, Part A Section 1.01 (b)(2) Removal of Officers and Attaches states: "Eight (8) votes of the Members of the Committee on Rules shall be required for the removal of the Speaker, the Vice-Speaker, the Legislative Secretary, or any Standing Committee Chairperson. Eight (8) votes of the Members of the Committee on Rules shall be required for the removal of any Legislative Attache...."

and changes the rules of the game to make it possible for Rory to remove Won Pat by now establishing that:

"I Mina 'Trentai Dos Na Liheslaturan Gudhan does hereby amend Standing Rules Part A, Section 1.01 (b )(2) Removal of 23 Officers and Attaches to now read: "Eight (8) votes of I Mina'Trentai Dos Na Liheslaturan Gudhan shall be required for the removal of the Speaker, the Vice-Speaker, the Legislative Secretary, or any Standing Committee Chairperson."

Signing off on the coup d' Rory plot are, of course democrat turncoat and Republican mole Dennis Rodriguez Jr, who brings with him to aid Repsicio, his normal Calvo contingent of fellow Republican lawmakers, Tony Ada, Brant McCreadie, Mike Limtiaco and Aine Yamashita.

What is surprising in this kitty coup are the Democrats who have signed off on the rules change with Rory and Dennis...Tina Muña Barnes, Tom Ada and Michael San Nicolas...all of whom seem to be running like mad for unelection in 2014.

This latest display of Democratic cannibalism only reaffirms the growing irrelevancy that Won Pat has allowed to define her last two terms and the desperation of veteran lawmakers who can't seem to otherwise progress their ambition.

This question actually flummoxed me. It's not a hard question, but after reading the bill I am not sure about what would be accomplished by the legislation. I could be wrong, but I thought there was already something in place for employees who were injured on the job.

Of more concern to the people of Guam, I would think, would be the continuing abuse of the current system that this measure does not seem to address in any manner.

                                  Take for example, the former Dept of Education Facilities & Maintenance manager Ken Calvo who received more than $1,500 in salary increment, $500 in increased retirement benefits and about $300 in additional medical benefits although he hadn't even showed up for work for almost a year and a half.

Adding insult to fake injury, for those of us who actually have to work for what we earn, the guy eventually went back to "work" on the government payroll with no disciplinary action or loss of benefits. In fact, from what I recall he went on to better paying gigs for which he no doubt did little to earn that money either.

                             Former Dept of Education Facilities and Maintenance Manager Ken Calvo. His total salary and benefits spiked from $66,101 in October 2009 to $66,525 by January 2010.KUAM News confirmed at the time that Calvo had been "technically" on sick leave for more than a year.

The former glorified janitor at DOE was not, and is not an exception. Throughout GovGuam employees abuse the system with little or no objection from their supervisors. Things are tough for many of us on Guam already. Being hurt on the job and not having income would be a nightmare. Even scarier however, is the lack of prudence in preventing ongoing abuses of the system and a lack of interest on the part of lawmakers to do something about it.