by Lannie Walker

Guam - The Chamorro Land Trust Commission is concerned about a bill that proposes to sell land in its inventory in Hagatna. CLTC board chairperson and acting administrator Jess Garcia says they were never consulted about Bill 440; the legislation was introduced by Senator Jim Espaldon and would authorize over 100 square meters of CLTC property in the island's capitol village to be sold to American Keystone Corporation.

The measure requires the land be sold at a value determined by appraisal.

Calvo says he would not approve the sale until he knew what the appraised value of land is. He also questions why the land would not be leased instead of sold. Garcia says the legislature is sidesteppping the commission and not following proper procedures. He said, "The process would be that they come to the CLTC for the board to approve it as excess land to be disposed of and then it goes to the Legislature to be a bill than law authorizing the sale of land, but as far as the CLTC is concerned - the Chamorro Land Trust has not approved of this sale."

According to American Keystone's business license, filed at the Department of Revenue & Taxation, their headquarters is located in Ordot. It listed Zhengrong Qu as president, secretary as Luis Liu, and director as Yeng Fang Wang.

A public hearing on Bill 440 is scheduled for tomorrow night at 6pm at the Guam Legislature.