Guam military project needs 15,000 skilled Filipino workers

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- Fifteen thousand skilled Filipino workers, among them from Baguio, will be recruited to help build a unified United States military installation in Guam starting next year.

Three mayors and another executive from Guam, who were here for Baguio’s centennial anniversary and the Sister-Cities Summit, announced the news during a business encounter Tuesday afternoon with the local chamber of commerce headed by Johnny dela Cruz at the Baguio Country Club.

Mayor Frank Blas of Tamuning-Tumon-Harmon, with which Baguio forged ties, said the Filipino workers’ experience and skill in construction work, aside from their facility with the English language, weighed heavily in the choice of the Philippines as recruitment base.

The military facility project will be developed in time for the transferof U.S. Marines troops based in Okinawa, according to Angel Sablan, executive director of the Guam Mayors Council.
He added the U.S. is also looking at Asia for the supplies needed for the project, saying the plan is to ship these to Saipan for stocking.

This also means, he said, the construction of schools, medical and other facilities for the families of soldiers who will be assigned to the base.

Mayor Vicente Gumataotao of Piti said the project costing $15 billion will house servicemen under the U.S. Marines, Air Force and Navy.

The Guam executives, including Hagatna ( Agana ) mayor John Cruz, announced that employment will be done through accredited recruitment agencies in the Philippines

City councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, co-chair of the Baguio’s sister-city committee, said the recruitment program was initially announce earlier this year when he and other city officials visited Guam for a meeting on the sister-city program.

“This good news is one of the benefits that come with our forging ties with other local government units in our country and abroad,” she said. .