Guam – JGPO Spokesman Neil Ruggiero calls reports of a meeting with the Legislature a “misunderstanding,” telling PNC News that the meeting is on and taking place on Thursday morning.
Acting speaker Tina Muna Barnes initially expressed disappointment on learning that the meeting would not take place, but Ruggiero says that the misunderstaning has been cleared up and the meeting is taking place Thursday moninrg.
Wednesday, Senator Muna-barnes told PNC News “I think it’s important that we find out what miss pfanenstiel is doing here,” said Barnes adding, “There is a purpose why the Assistant Secretary is here Pfanenstiel, and we need to know we need to know what her purpose is. Does it have to do with our lands? Does it have to do with… the policy making body of our island needs to know. The request was made in the past and for her not to want to see the acting speaker and our colleagues who are here today is very disappointing very, very, disappointing.”
Assistant secretary of the Navy Jackalyne Pfannenstiel made arrangements to meet with speaker Judi Wonpat on Thursday the second of December. Speaker Wonpat had to go off-island leaving senator Tina Muna Barnes as the acting speaker. When Pfannenstiel was notified of this she canceled her visit with the legislature. “As a policy making body we need to make sure that the interests of our people are safeguarded of our island community and it’s a shame they don’t want to see the acting speaker,” said Senator Barnes.
Senator Barnes says Pfannenstiel gave no indication as to why they didn’t want to meet with her even though she is the acting speaker. “Snubbed is putting it mildly,” said the senator adding, “We need to know why she’s here and we’re not aware of that and as a matter of fact we don’t even have an itinerary of what her plans are here.”
According to the Joint Guam Program Office Pfannenstiel arrived on island Tuesday night. Wednesday she was on base meeting with various military leaders. She will leave on Thursday night but it’s not clear what else she will be doing while on island or what the purpose of her trip is. One thing we do know is that Assistant Secretary Pfannenstiel is scheduled to meet with the mayors council of Guam today [Thursday] at 10am.
