by Nick Delgado

Guam - Piti mayor Ben Gumataotao is making a plea to lawmakers to help identify existing funds so that the bus services from the Guam Regional Transit Authority could continue. Gumataotao is also the mass transit acting board chairperson and says he is aware that public bus services are threatened to cease come March of this year.

He says it is possible to stop certain services, but he adds that the fact is they just don't have the $400,000 needed every month to carry them to the end of this fiscal year. "I keep telling our board member that we got to carry a lot of handkerchiefs and cry over the Legislature try and fund these people because these people are very pitiful because they are mostly handicap using the mass transit and that's where our problem is now we don't want it cut short for those people," he said.

The governor's transition report mentioned the threat of bus services coming to a halt next month. Gumataotao says the only back up plan if the funds are not identified is to shut down bus service operations.