Camacho wants Japan funds

Gov. Felix Camacho leaves for Tokyo tomorrow to ask for cash from the Japanese government for Guam's costs associated with the planned relocation of U.S. Marines from Okinawa.

A local senator cautioned that foreign relations are outside the governor's league.

Camacho should let the State Department or the White House convey the message, said Democratic Sen. Rory Respicio, chairman of the legislative committee that deals with federal relations.

The governor said yesterday he plans to meet with Japanese lawmakers -- and possibly with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama -- on Thursday to ask for "access" to Japan's $6 billion share of the cost to move some of the American troops from Okinawa to Guam.

In 2006, the United States and Japan agreed to share the cost to lessen the presence of U.S. Marines in Okinawa, in part by relocating 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents to Guam. The cost of relocating the Marines and building a base on Guam was estimated to cost $10.27 billion, with Japan paying about $6 billion of that amount.

Camacho has given six members of the National Diet of Japan (Japan's legislature) a preview of his message to Tokyo.

The governor said he met with the six Japanese lawmakers when he visited Saipan on Saturday at the invitation of Northern Marianas Gov. Benigno Fitial.

"I asked basically one thing: I said, 'You provided $6 billion to the U.S. Department of Defense to build the base ... and also for Guam to accommodate the 8,000 Marines and possibly 9,000 dependents,'" Camacho said of his message to Japan lawmakers.

"We have no access to that $6 billion, and yet we are on one island with shared resources of water, of electricity, of land and the like."

"We should not be expected to, nor can we, cover the cost that will be imposed upon the people of Guam, and I am asking for access to the $6 billion that is confined only to expenditure within the (military fence) line," Camacho said yesterday.

Japan's $6 billion share of the Marines' relocation will consist of $2.8 billion in cash and $3.29 billion in equity investments and loans to what's called "special purpose entities" that will provide housing and utilities for the Marines on Guam, the Defense Department has stated.

A special purpose entity is a public-private partnership funded by the government of Japan, the Defense Department stated in 2008.

The six Japanese lawmakers whom Camacho met in Saipan on Saturday, according to the Guam governor, "have requested for us to be there and meet with them again Thursday in Tokyo."

"We've requested for an audience also with the prime minister ... . We leave sometime Wednesday," Camacho said.

The governor's trip to Tokyo comes amid tensions between the United States and Japan over Japan's signals to rewrite the 2006 pact.

The U.S.-Japan agreement was signed before Hatoyama took office last September. Now that he is prime minister, Hatoyama faces pressure to fulfill a campaign promise to move all of the estimated 46,000 American troops off Okinawa completely -- contrary to the 2006 agreement. The agreement only called for a partial relocation of the Marines on Okinawa, according to The Associated Press.

The Japan Consulate on Guam, when asked if the office was aware of Camacho's planned official trip to Tokyo, declined to comment.

'Unproductive'

Respicio said the governor should have worked within the proper protocols, through the U.S. State Department or the White House, to convey the island's message to Japan.

"Gov. Camacho needs to understand international protocol and politics -- and to communicate directly with the government of Japan when we are a United States territory, he is being extremely unproductive," Respicio said.

Guam "is trying to court the United States government to pay more attention to Guam, and it's not gonna bode well to the White House that he went directly to Japan," Respicio said.

"I hope the governor doesn't say this is an official state visit," Respicio said, referring to Camacho's Taiwan trip last year, which prompted a protest from mainland China's Embassy in Los Angeles.

The governor's office had called Camacho's Taiwan trip "an official state visit to Taipei at the invitation of Taipei President (Ying-jeou) Ma via the Taipei Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

The governor yesterday said Guam should get direct access to Japan's funding because the buildup has direct impact on the lives of people who make Guam home.

"They've made decisions that will impact and affect our territory, our people, our way of life, without any consultation and, secondly, that the impact and the cost that it would bring to us is ... they are expecting us to absorb, and I said that is absolutely not right and the point I made was that there has to be a way that funding for the impacts to the territory are taken care of," Camacho said.