Speaker Therese Terlaje blasted the governor over the prospect of signing the lease for Eagles Field, even comparing the administration to the old naval governorship when the military controlled the island. Terlaje called the 100-year lease a "mockery" while a bill to require legislative approval for any federal lease of more than five years sits on the governor's desk.

We wanted to interview Speaker Terlaje on her remarks, but her office said she wouldn't be available. But the speaker had no shortage of written words about the Eagles Field deal.

In an early morning release to island media, she wrote that the lease: "Is a mockery of our already limited self-government." She continued, "it is akin to the naval governors of the past who ignored the wishes of the legislature and the people of Guam."

The speaker wrote, "there is no reason we cannot build a new hospital while vetting the details, the costs, the obligations, the location and to ensure that it is going to benefit the people of Guam first."

She is referring to her bill which requires legislative approval for any leases of federal land for more than five years. Terlaje concluded, "What is most egregious is the intentional timing of a lease on the day of the governor’s state of the island address, while a bill that was passed unanimously is sitting on her desk, which simply asks the governor to vet any potential lease with the legislature and the people of Guam."

But Sen. Will Parkinson responded to the speaker, saying while his first choice is to return the land, he was advised point blank by the admiral that it wasn't possible. "Let's be honest here and call a spade a spade," the freshman policymaker asserted. "The real intent, this bill is meant to obstruct the hospital. If this bill is to pass, I mean it was sold as such, it was sold that if we obstruct the hospital the landowners would get a shot at their land back, and so that's clearly what this is.

"This is a bill meant to obstruct the hospital in an effort to get the landowners their land back. But if that's a false promise, if that's something we can't actually deliver, then it's irresponsible of us not to put forward a hospital while pushing false promises for political points."

Adelup issued a similar reaction accusing the speaker of political gamesmanship; saying she was stoking anti-American and anti-military sentiment, and giving false hope to original landowners for her political agenda and ambition, continuously misleading them to believe in the possibility that these lands will be returned.

The original landowners of Eagles Field mustered a last-minute online letter-writing campaign calling on the governor not to sign the lease today.

They are still seeking the return of their land known as "Lalo," in Mangilao. The letter reads, "We stand with the original landowners of Lalo who are disheartened about the governor's backdoor negotiations with the military on the use of their land and the news of a lease that will be delivered at 3 p.m. today for the governor's signature."

It goes on, "...choose another location for the hospital. This land belongs to CHamoru families."

But the governor's office says they hadn't planned to sign a lease today, and a spokesperson for Joint Region Marianas confirms that.

KUAM News is scheduled to speak with Admiral Benjamin Nicholson tomorrow for his take on the controversy.

Read the statements from the speaker, Adelup and other senators here: