Ancestral Lands responds to TRO filing

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - The Ancestral Lands Commission has filed its response to an ex-parte motion requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction filed by Attorney Curtis Van De Veld on behalf of ancestral landowners who feel a recently signed law that gives ancestral property at FAA and Andy South just to Tiyan landowners is unfair. Represented by Assistant Attorney General William Bischoff, he rejects the motion based on several points.

Such pints include that the plaintiffs have never owned the lots in question, they are being held by the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission in public trust, and the Legislature is free to revoke or modify the terms of a public trust that it creates.

Bischoff also argues that the Legislature is allowed to attack piecemeal the problem of dispossessed ancestral landowners.