THE Guam Visitors Bureau was missing in action again as a large convention of professionals of high personal wealth visited our island and paid the 11 percent hotel room tax that ridiculously goes directly to GVB.

Oblivious to the presence of visiting doctors, nurses, and medical professionals for the 2012 Pacific Cancer Conference jointly sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Guam Medical Association, GVB made no effort to welcome these distinguished visitors to Guam.

More than 400 health care professionals from Los Angeles, Hawaii, Manila, and Micronesia were exposed to cutting edge cancer detection technology and treatment strategies that will impact the lives of the thousands of patients whom they serve.

Capacity crowds of island doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and patients filled the high-tech Hyatt Regency conference center this weekend and learned how we can beat cancer together.

A lot of medical controversy, a lot of honesty, a little comedy, and a little flair, the 2012 Pacific Cancer Conference was praised by many seasoned physician participants as the best medical conference ever held on Guam.

Local cancer experts, like general/vascular surgeon Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, presented on the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer on Guam. Radiation oncologist Dr. Winlove B. Suasin, of the Island Cancer Center, discussed the state-of-the-art linear accelerator available on Guam for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Dr. Temo Waqanivalu of Fiji discussed the latest World Health Organization strategies for the prevention and control of cancer in the Western Pacific Islands.

Scott Burton, an award-winning comedian, provided thoughtful and often hilarious perspectives about being a cancer patient. Burton, who suffered from advanced bone cancer to his leg, traveled for the first time to Guam from Minnesota to bring his life-affirming message of hope and humor.

Some cancer patients traveled only from the nearby villages of Guam, but spoke of a journey that is still too long. One physically-bowed but manifestly courageous Vietnam veteran, wearing a portable oxygen mask, stood up in the middle of the medical conference and challenged the doctors in the audience to find more compassion and resources for their patients.

“No other father should have to fall on his knees and pray for his son's doctors to be more nice or more understanding about his terrible illness. You are not treating numbers, you are treating people,” the frail but still proud man from Guam said.

One of the themes of this year's conference seems to be that clinicians need to be more discerning of patient costs, both physical and fiscal. We heard recommendations and justification for more judicious Pap smear/cervical cancer and PSA/prostate cancer screening that will translate into a real change in the way medicine is done on Guam.

And so too, we should be more discerning about the physical and fiscal costs of GVB. Despite the fact that people with cancer have to stand on the side of the road begging for money for medicine, GVB had an excess of $7 million in funds at the end of Fiscal Year 2011. Last year, the bureau directly received $12 million from hotel room tax collections. While the public schools and the hospital ran into deficits, GVB operated lavishly with a $13.2 million budget.

If little, barefoot school kids have to walk down to the Guam Legislature to beg for money to fix their broken bathrooms, then Japanese and Korean tour operators can certainly do the same to fund their off-island advertising campaigns.

Over the past year, GVB has blown millions on travel junkets, parties for themselves, and the search for Balate Bob. I say that this fiscal madness must end. The out-of-touch visitors bureau is bad for Guam's health.

As the people from the villages of our island struggle to deal with real life challenges, I call on Sen. Tina Muña-Barnes to bring the hotel room tax revenues back to the General Fund. Give the tourism money to the schools, to the hospital, and to the village mayors. Let's make Guam attractive to Guamanians and let's make the tax-exempt hotels start holding fundraisers to get their marketing people off-island.