Since the Yona mayor hasn't resigned, one village resident is taking matters into his own hands saying Mayor Jesse Blas needs to go.

Yona resident Kiko Hiton said his mayor has brought shame to the village. That's part of why he is planning on circulating a petition to recall Blas.

"A lot of people, when you go places they say 'what's wrong? What happened to your mayor? Why is this happening," he said. "We don't know. The only one that knows is him."

Mayor Blas is still on paid leave while behind bars on charges of bribery and extortion relative to an alleged scheme to help drug dealers import crystal meth into our island. Blas allegedly charged an informant posing as a drug trafficker and other drug traffickers for the use of cluster mailboxes at the mayor's office. The feds say Blas even told drug dealers he could switch which boxes they received drugs in to throw the feds off.

Hiton said Yona residents are very bothered by the mayor's alleged involvement in the drug trade, especially since Guam is struggling with an epidemic of meth abuse.


"That's the biggest problem with our island right now - everybody likes it," he said. "It's taken a lot of our people away."

Hiton will take his recall petition before the Guam Election Commission on Monday evening. If the GEC approves the petition format, Hiton will have to gather 981 signatures to trigger a recall election for the Yona mayor. If a majority of voters cast their ballots in favor of Mayor Blas being removed from office, he will be, according to GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan. Pangelinan also said the legislature - with a two-thirds vote - could also call for a recall.

But Hiton said all of this would be unnecessary if Blas did the right thing and stepped down.


"He should go ahead and resign because the way it's going it's been dragging on for already what," he questioned. "A couple months and things hasn't happened yet. We just wait, wait, wait.

Now that the mayor's trial has been moved to February, it's going to be three more months of waiting.

"That's true that's why we need to do this recall so we can get the village going again," he said.

Hiton said he plans on running for Yona mayor if there's a special election - he has run twice before. The GEC says only three people have formally filed papers declaring their intent to run for Yona mayor - Christina Toves Perez, Ethan Aguon Camacho and Bill A. Quenga.

We asked Hiton if he had a message for his mayor.

"How could you do this to the village? People trusted in you," he said.