by Lannie Walker

Guam - As the transfer of property from ancestral lands to Tiyan landowners under public law remains halted by a temporary restraining order, the authority of the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission to disperse the land has come into question - at least by Attorney Curtis Van De Veld, who represents non-Tiyan landowners in a class action lawsuit. He has taken issue with a quitclaim deed issued in June that puts the property in the land bank trust in the hands of all commissioners

He told KUAM News, "This is all very some very suspicious circumstances because of the close proximity of the actual efforts to remove the property to the land bank and transfer it to the Tiyan landowners."

Director of the ALC Ed Benavente says that is just not true and that the only reason the deed was issued was to eliminate a subcommittee that had been tasked with negotiating deals for ancestral lands property and give control back to the committee as a whole.