World War II survivor George C. Eustaquio has long argued that the Organic Act of Guam, rather than the liberation of Guam, should be widely celebrated by the people of the island.
Prior to the act, which was signed into law 75 years ago today by President Harry S. Truman, the island was controlled by the Department of the Navy. The people of Guam were U.S. nationals, but they did not have the benefit of citizenship.
That changed with the Organic Act.
Eustaquio, a resident of Maryland who served as chief of staff under Del. Antonio B. Won Pat, said there was jubilation on the island when the Organic Act became law. He explained the importance of the act.
“It gave Guam, the ability to enact laws," he said. "For 50 years, of course, we were under naval administration and that was nots an ideal situation to run a civilian community by using the military sort of standard of governance.”
Appointed naval governors controlled the island from 1899 until December 1941, when the Japanese invaded and began their 2-1/2 year occupation. Eustaquio was 13 when the Americans recaptured Guam in 1944.
After the war, the military was once again in charge of Guam. Naval governors had complete control over the island. Conflicts ensued, and in 1949, the Guam Congress demanded citizenship and self-government.
A walkout by members of the Guam Congress was widely publicized by the mainland U.S. news organizations.
Eustaquio, who was in high school at the time, said there was support in the U.S. for greater local autonomy on Guam.
"As an American community, we should always aspire, and one of the aspirations, of course, of being an American, is to be able to vote for local leaders," he said.
The push for citizenship had been a rallying point for the island since before the war. In 1936, B.J. Bordallo and Francisco Baza Leon Guerrero traveled toWashington, D.C., to petition the president and members of Congress for citizenship.
“And so there was, you know, fundraising. I remember when I was very young, going around the village soliciting funds for what they calle the citizenship aspiration,” Eustaquio said.
While he is happy to see the Organic Act being celebrated today, there is still work to do.
"We do have the so-called insular cases that are still hanging like an albatross around our neck," he said. "And so in that sense, the Constitution is not fully extended to Guam and it never has been fully operational in the same way that it applies to the various states."
Issues like Supplemental Security Income benefits and voting standards for a plebiscite "need to be cleaned up too," he said
But for today, the people of Guam will commemorate what 94-year-old Eustaquio describes as the political renaissance of the island: The beginning of Guam’s self-governance, but certainly not the end.
