Briefs
People
• Guam Lieutenant Governor Kaleo S. Moylan was married to Julie Rose Cruz on June 7 in St. Anthony Church in Tamuning. Moylan assumed office in January after serving four years as a member of the Guam Legislature. He is the son of the first elected lieutenant governor of Guam, businessman Kurt Moylan.
-FW
• Former Speaker of the Federated States of Micronesia Congress Jack Fritz has won reelection from Chuuk in a special election to fill the vacant four-year seat vacated by Redley Killion when he assumed the FSM Vice President post in May. With slightly over 17,000 votes cast, Fritz defeated Manny Mori by 586 votes. Yap's Ramon Peyal beat out Vincent Figir to take Yap's four-year seat that opened up after Joseph Urusemal was elected President.
-GJ
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• Australia's new governor-general is Major General (retired) Michael Jeffery, once governor of the state of Western Australia and holder of the Military Cross for action in Vietnam. He has also had Pacific experience, having served twice in Papua New Guinea with the Pacific Islands Regiment-first in 1966-69 and again in 1974-75, when he commanded a platoon.
-ND
• A jury found three men guilty in U.S. District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands of charges related to defrauding the Bank of Saipan of more than $6 million. Tomas B. Aldan, Bert Douglas Montgomery and Dusean Berkich will be sentenced on Sept. 23.
-FW
• Greta N. Morris, a career foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department, has been confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. She will replace Ambassador Michael J. Senko, when he leaves Majuro in August.
-GJ
• The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned on June 13th a guilty conviction handed down earlier this year by the federal court in Honolulu and ordered a new trial for Montez Salamasina Tuia Ottley. The Appeals court ruled that federal Judge Manuel Real should have allowed Ottley to serve as her own counsel at trial, instead of being given a court-appointed attorney. The new trial is now set for October this year.
-FS
• Governor Togiola Tulafono has appointed veteran government official Francis Leasiolagi as treasurer of the American Samoa government. The cabinet post is subject to legislative approval. The treasurer post became vacant in early May when former treasurer Aitofele Sunia was confirmed by the legislature as the Lieutenant Governor.
-FS
• Mark Lowen, publisher of the Vanuatu newspaper Port Vila Presse, was found guilty of failing to make obligatory contributions on behalf of his employees to Vanuatu's National Provident Fund. Lowen claimed that members of his staff were individuals sub-contracting their labor and services to his organization.
-ND
• The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Samoa Office has a new Resident Representative, Junji Ishizuka, who replaces former office head Muliagatele Tsutomu Moriya. Ishizuka has worked for JICA for 25 years.
-FS
• Kalafi Moala, publisher of the New Zealand-based Times of Tonga, has said that the Tonga Media Association is using smear tactics in supporting constitutional change in the kingdom. The TMA, says Moala, is turning a blind eye to corruption in Tonga by endorsing the proposal for change which was designed to limit the freedom of the media.
-ND
• Solomon Islands Minister for Health Benjamin Una, said that quantities of urgently required drugs and other medical supplies reported missing may have been stolen by health workers to make up for the inability of the government to pay their wages. Acting CEO of the Solomons National Referral Hospital Dr. Chester Kumar says he is concerned about the consequences to patients.
-ND
• Retiring director of the Palau Bureau of Public Health Dr. Caleb Otto is finishing his career on a high note. Dr. Otto has been awarded the Director-General's Award, the highest honor given by the World Health Organization, for his work on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
-NC
• In his testimony on Compact II before the House Resources Committee, David B. Cohen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, in an effort to emphasize the contributions of Freely Associated States citizens to U.S. security, told the committee: "At this moment 82nd Airborne Army Specialist Hilario Bermanis from Pohnpei lies in Walter Reed Army Hospital after being gravely wounded in a grenade attack in Baghdad. He has lost both legs and an arm. We all pray for Hilario's recovery."
-SW
• Chamorro rights activist and former Guam Sen. Angel L. G. Santos died on July 5 at the age of 44. Often controversial, he was an articulate speaker who was passionately devoted to the causes he took up. In the early 1990s Santos came to prominence as spokesman for the indigenous rights group Chamoru Nation's Traditional Council. He was instrumental in forcing the implementation of the Chamorro Land Trust Act in 1992 by taking part in a month long campout in front of the Governor's office.
-FW
• Retired University of Hawaii professor Don Topping died on June 29 in Honolulu at 73. Topping became a strong proponent of the Chamorro language at a time when Chamorros would get punished for speaking their native tongue. University of Guam associate professor Bernadita Camacho-Dungca called him "a modern pioneer of the Chamorro language." Topping was a long-time director of the Social Science Research Institute at UH.
-GJ
• The second Territorial Senator for the Ituau District in the American Samoa legislature died in late June at the LBJ Medical Center. Senator Maluia Filoitumua, 68, a former cabinet member, was serving his first four-year term in office.
-FS
• The oldest ever Member of Parliament in Samoa, Taatiti Alofa passed away in June after what was one of the shortest parliamentary careers on record. He won the Alataua West seat for Samoa National Development Party in a by-election several months ago. At age 90, he created history by being the oldest politician to become an MP.
-FS
• Betty Chargualaf Peredo, better known as "Seabee Betty," died June 9. Since 1952 she was known for making members of the Naval Construction Force feel welcome as they were stationed in Guam. She hosted a Chamorro fiesta for each new battalion that arrived and again as the group left.
-FW
-Contributors: Frank Whitman, Giff Johnson, Norman Douglas, Fili Sagapolutele, Nancy Chism and Scott Whitney
