THE business community should take a stand on the military buildup instead of just being quiet, said Lee Webber, member of the Armed Forces Committee of the Guam Chamber of Commerce.

Webber made the statement during the regular luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Guam yesterday.

Webber said one of the things that probably didn’t help with the buildup today was how the business community sat silent while everyone else “beat the daylights out of the United States military, the Marine Corps and the buildup.”

“There was not nearly enough voice out of the business community to stand up for the buildup,” he said.

He urged the Rotarians to speak out and let their issues be known about what the buildup can bring to Guam, especially for the island’s economy.

Webber also took a shot at the so-called “Fab 5” of the Legislature – Speaker Judi Won Pat, Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz, and Sens. Rory Respicio, Ben Pangelinan and Judi Guthertz – as well as their alleged negative opinions on the buildup.

“I only picked one thing from each of them. Rory Respicio did the multiple demands for war reparations and indigenous rights and claimed there was near ethnocide of the Chamorro people attributable to the United States military. B.J. Cruz did his around-the-island drive and put it up on Facebook and said how lovely it is now and how nasty it would be when the military gets here,” Webber said.

Toll booth

“Ben Pangelinan did his wonderful nasty song and dance on the back of Gen. David Bice up in Yigo and was completely insensitive. Toll booth Judi (Guthertz) decided we should put toll booths at the gates of the AAFB and the Navy so we can charge them as they came out. Judi Won Pat accused the Marines of going to rape all the Chamorro women,” he added.

Webber believes if these senators and other groups who are against the buildup had not taken the stand they had, Guam would probably not be sitting in the economic doldrums that the island is in now.

“We should have done what the island has done historically for so many years, and that is embrace the community and embrace folks that are coming to visit here to be around us and be with us. If we had done this, there would probably be more people working here and more money flowing to the island,” Webber said.

“We would have contracts that would let things move forward and we would have been economically better,” he added.