The Guam Soldiers honored during the ceremony were SGT Eugene M. Aguon and SPC Dwayne W. Flores, along with the four civilian contractors, all of whom were military veterans.

LTC Michael Tougher, Battalion Commander of the 1st Battalion, 294th Inf.  Regt., Task Force Guam, shared his memories of the fallen Soldiers in his remarks during the ceremony.

“Today we mourn the loss of two exceptional Soldiers. Task Force Guam is blessed with great Soldiers. Our Soldiers possess the right attitude, proper military bearing and a great deal of pride. Dwayne Flores and Eugene Aguon were two of our best,” Tougher said.

“SGT Aguon and SPC Flores became the epitome of a well disciplined, formidable, technically and tactically trained force,” added Echo Company Commander, 1LT Joey San Nicolas, about the two Soldiers under his charge.

SPC Brian Muna and PFC Brandy Martinez both gave personal accounts of their friendships with SGT Aguon and SPC Flores. “I will always remember him as Rambo, a great NCO, a great friend and a great mentor,” said Muna about SGT Aguon.

PFC Martinez commented that SPC Flores loved what he was doing. “ I kept telling Dwayne that we’ll be pulling him back into the office…but he would just say, no, no, no…just leave me where I’m at!”

While the flags of coalition nations flew over the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan courtyard where the ceremony was held, the somber presence of two battle crosses and portraits of each of the fallen Soldiers, mandated a quiet presence in the midst of the usually bustling compound.

Afghanistan, a country weary and torn by years of endless battles, reflects a difficult way of life for most Afghans. However, in the middle of all this turmoil, a rose bush on the edge of the courtyard with fresh petals springing out of their buds seems to symbolize a hope that even in the dreariest of situations, there is an eventual reward and beauty for the hard work that is being cultivated in this country.

The wish expressed by all personnel in attendance is, that the efforts and lives of their fallen comrades, bring forth the hope and promise of a better future for the people of Afghanistan.

Bill 105 officially allows GovGuam to use the Qualified School Construction bonds which uses a federal subsidy to offset a portion of each semi-annual interest payment for the bonds.

The bill's author Speaker Judi Won Pat says that GEDA has assured her that the federal subsidy for these bonds is not subject to sequestration. She said the expansion of Okkodo will allow them to accommodate up to an additional 500 students.

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Senator Mike San Nicolas noted that these bonds will will increase GovGuam's overall debt service by an additional $1.2 million in 2015.

The original version of Bill 20 would've taxed insurance companies to fund the hospital. The substitute version taxes gaming devices. Department of Administration Director Benita Manglona read a statement written by Governor Eddie Calvo showing his support for the substitute version of bill 20 which now uses gaming machines as a source to fund the hospital.

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"Now Bill 20 derives it's funding source from another revenue stream. Well I would have preferred for insurance companies to pay their fair share of taxes I fully support more funding for GMH. Enough of these political shenanigans. Senators should rally behind this bill because it's a good bill with a real funding source preferring a viable solution to the Hospital's resource needs,” read Manglona.

Dr. Tom Shieh says he supports the bill's intent to fund the hospital but he's concerned about using gaming machines as the funding source. "The issue with the social aspect of gambling is very well documented and I think if you're gonna increase the amount of these machines once you accept it as being legal then these can expand and you can expand out of control,” said Dr. Shieh.

GMHA Administrator Joseph Verga testified in favor of the measure saying that this bill is needed to help the hospital wipe out it's debt. "Everyday that goes by the interest on the debt increases. It puts more pressure on the hospital and more and more vendors will not do business with us because of it,” said Verga.

In fact Ed Ilao who owns a company that is one of the largest vendors to GMH says it's difficult to continue doing business with GMH when they are so slow to pay. "We the GMH vendors especially local vendors are extremely frustrated trying to collect from GMH. This is a liability that GMH the Government of Guam and this legislature cannot continue to ignore,” said Ilao.

However, Linala Sin Casino President Dr. Jose Cruz and Keep Guam Good representative Jackie Marati both say the bad this bill will cause far outweighs the good and they fear that the bill is a gateway to legalized casino gambling. "Bill 20-32 is yet another effort to legalize illegal activity by designating proposed taxes to pay the Guam Memorial Hospital,” said Marati adding, "The funding source is illegal. Bill 20-32 is simply no different from any of the five initiatives soundly defeated by Guam's voters since 2004 almost ten years. The obvious question here is who is this bill really for?

What interests outside of Guam have a stake in expanding this industry?” asked Marati. "Legitimizing illegal activity increases law enforcement costs and takes away badly needed family money which should go to shelter, health, food, and education of our children. Gambling harms society's fabric,” said Marati.

 The bill's author Senator Dennis Rodriguez Jr. says that he will move to put the bill on this session's agenda.

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Just last month, GMH submitted a budget proposal of $144 million for Fiscal Year 2014, $20 million of which will pay off the debt. But with Bill 20, Verga says, GMH will be able to reduce its budget request by $20 million.

"We're of course supporting the bill and hoping it would be approved and if it is we'll also be able to reduce the budget accordingly because then the debt will be handled that way, as you know $20 million of our budget was all for the debt," Verga says. "If it is not approved then we need to pursue the debt through allocating through the budget."

While the immediate goal of the bill is to provide GMH with a funding source to pay off its debt, Verga emphasizes that another attractive feature of Bill 20 is that it will still be a direct source of revenue for the hospital even after its debt has been paid off. Verga explains that Bill 20 will allow GMH to float a bond. The funds from the bond proceeds will then be used to pay off the debt at about $5 million a year for five years.

"I think the bill is talking about yielding a little bit more than upwards of $5 million a year which would be more than adequate to pay off not only the interest on the bond but to pay down the interest and what the plan would be is to direct all of those funds to pay off that bond fund within five years," he explains.

And after that, Verga says: "And then after that, the bond is paid off then those funds would stay with the hospital and then we'd be able to reduce the sources of funding from other GovGuam sources accordingly and then those funds would be directed to operational use of the hospital. So after five years it would go into operations and stay with the hospital which is really the attractive feature of the bill."

Therefore, Verga points out, less money would be needed out of the General Fund. Verga, however, is not ignoring the potential for the bill to fail given its opposition from the Attorney General's Office.

So if the bill doesn't pass, GMH is back to requesting for the funds through its budget. And if that doesn't work, Verga says, it's back to the drawing board for GMH.

"The doomsday scenario is we will have to significantly curtail hospital services, downsize the hospital, really significantly reduce staff, because we cannot continue to sustain the level of services that we provide now and of course, no one wants to do that," Verga says.

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Dominguez says the buses that have already arrived won't be ready for use until the summer session but he expects them to take the burden off buses in the northern routes in the upcoming school year.

“The buses that you see today are only 60 passenger buses what this means is with these 84 passenger buses on some of our routes particularly up in the north where the  student population is heavy our bus drivers won't have to turn around and do a second run,” Dominguez told PNC. “That saves on fuel wear and tare and time.”

Dominguez says the buses that will be purchased from the new grant will be 60 passenger buses and they likely won't be ready for use until after the 2013/2014 school year begins.

The Talaifak Bridge Restoration Project is finally done after more than a year of preserving and restoring the historic structure. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this morning [Thursday] as island leaders and the Agat community gathered together for the event.

The $900 thousand dollar project was paid for by the Federal Highway Administration and the Guam Preservation Trust. Chief Program Officer Joe Quinata says original and similar materials were used to repair structural components of the bridge, but the area now includes landscaping, seating, lighting, railing and parking to accommodate tour buses.

He also clarifies the correct pronunciation for the name of the historic Spanish bridge is not “Ta-li-fak” but “Ta-lai-fak.”

“They tried to spell the Chamorro word in English and so what it did was it kind of altered the pronunciation,” said Quinata. “So if you look at the Chamorro word, the word you see now, you can pronounce it much better which is, 'Ta-lai-fak.'”

Quinata says when the Guam Preservation Trust took on this project, they had two important goals in mind.

“One was to preserve the bridge and that is doing restoration work and the other one was to save the bridge,” said Quinata.

To save the bridge, Quinata notes the plans included diverting water flow from the current 3 barrel bridge away from the old bridge, which has a two barrel design. Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Carl Dominguez also says they did this by creating a culvert next to the historic site.

“Underneath where we're standing on is a large culvert intended to divert as much water from the bridge so that during a storm event, the flood waters don't damage the bridge any further,” said Dominguez.

Part of the restoration work for this project also included restoring a portion of the bridge that had fallen apart, as well as adding boulders around the shore line to break up the water flow and waves.

“That was the design work,” said Quinata. “That was the solution and we had great parties to accomplish the goal.”

Department of Chamorro Affairs President Joseph Cameron says the Spanish bridge was originally wooden, but was later fortified with the remnants of what we see now. He says this site touches many people because their relatives used it as a passageway since the 1700's.

“It touches the lives of a lot of people actually because they actually know of their grandparents or great grandparents who had traversed in order to go into the rich historic city of Hagatna or vice versa, the historic district of Humatak or Malesso'," said Cameron.

The Talaifak Bridge is one of two double barrel stone bridges in the Marianas that are still standing in the 21^st century. The other bridge is located in Cella Bay.

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"The contractor is gonna open up the new section of the bridge that they finished on the ocean side and the two lanes leading up to the bridge,” DPW Director Carl Dominguez explain. “Motorists will be driving in the meantime on concrete not asphalt the asphalt will come later when the project is almost done.”

The lane shifts are scheduled to begin at 5am Saturday, May 25^th.

Dominguez says phase II is expected to be the easiest part of the project and its expected to be completed in September allowing Phase III to then begin. Phase III will involve closing the two northbound lanes on the land side of the bridge and moving northbound traffic into the center of the roadway.

Meanwhile, Dominguez says construction will also continue at the route 1/route 8 intersection.

“They anticipate to finish Route 8 in November,” Dominguez said. “I want to remind everybody that what will happen with Route 8 is there will be two new left turns from route 8 onto route 1 when they're done.”

After the Route 1/Route 8 projects are completed, construction will begin on the Chalan Santo Papa bridge near the Bank of Guam. Without any added delays that project is expected to be completed in October 2014.

* Francyn Salas was promoted to Assistant Vice President, Senior Consumer Loan Specialist. She received her B.B.A. in Business Management at Columbus State University in Georgia.  She joined the BankPacific family in 2009.

* James Cruz was promoted to Senior Residential Loan Specialist. He attended the University of Guam and has over 9 years of  banking experience in consumer, auto and residential lending.  James joined BankPacific in 2009.

* Eduardo Salanatin Jr. was promoted to Assistant Vice President, commercial loans. Ed began his employment with BankPacific in 2010.  He received his Bachelor degree in Business Administration with a concentration in finance and economics in 2009 from the University of Guam.

* Molly Quinata was promoted to Senior Residential Loan Processor. Molly attended the University of Guam. She brings with her over 6 years experience in the financial industry. Molly joined BankPacific in 2010.

* Theresa Guevera was recently promoted to Assistant Vice President/Residential Lending. She started with BankPacific as a Senior Residential Mortgage Loan Specialist in 2009.  She has 17 years of experience in financing in both the private and government sector.

* Norma Jean Flores was promoted to Senior Vice President, Systems Operation. She began her banking career as a teller in 1981. She joined BankPacific in 1993 and worked her way up to Branch Manager, Tamuning Branch in 1996. She became the Manager the Bank’s Central Processing Center in 2004 and later was promoted to Compliance and Security Officer in 2008. Norma took the role of  BSA Officer in 2012. Norma has a wealth of institutional knowledge and dedication to her BankPacific family.

* Maria (Leah) Vilante was promoted to Vice President and Senior Manager, Guam offices. Leah joined BankPacific in 1997. She began her banking career as a teller and progressed upward to become the bank’s Dededo Branch Manager in 2006. She was promoted to Electronic Service Manager in 2009 and now oversees all Guam offices. Leah demonstrates dedication and commitment to our BankPacific family.

* Lorna Santos was promoted to Assistant Vice President and Central Processing Center Manager. She joined BankPacific in 2005 as a teller and then transferred to our central processing center.  In 2010 she was promoted to Proof Operations Manager and became the Bank’s CPC Manager in 2012.

*Ernesto Miranda II promoted to Assistant Vice President and Information Technology Supervisor. He joined BankPacific in 2006. Ernesto graduated from the University of Guam and received his B.A. Degree in Computer Information System.

* Sandra Mesa was promoted to Vice President and Human Resources Officer. She started her banking career in 1981 as a teller. She joined the BankPacific family in 1994.