Veterans vent frustrations, support resolution seeking VA regional office on Guam

With the Department of Veterans Affairs' regional office located thousands of miles away in Hawaii, Guam veterans have long expressed frustration about the lack of services and timely response by the VA.

Sen. Telo Taitague's Resolution 472-37, which petitions the VA to establish a regional office on Guam, drew support from those who testified on it during Tuesday's public hearing.

Taitague said the goal is to "better serve the needs of vets on Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Freely Associated States."

"Getting adequate service from the Hawaii VA has been difficult and very frustrating...our veterans deserve better," Terlaje said in her opening remarks.

One of those is Ralph Terlaje, a retired Army veteran with a service-related disability, who said that "the lack of speed and efficiency by the Pacific regional VA office in Hawaii is frustrating."

He gave an example of trying to get a simple eyeglass prescription.

Terlaje said he went to the Guam Community Based Outpatient Clinic, CBOC, to schedule an optician appointment and it took the Hawaii VA three weeks to confirm a date.

But Terlaje said the date conflicted with a previous travel plan and to change the appointment, it would require further permission from the regional office.

"I couldn't even reschedule my own appointment. It has to go through Hawaii. Why?" Terlaje said.

It took him two months to get the eyeglasses.

"This resolution may not be perfect but it can get the ball rolling," Terlaje said.

Another veteran with a service-connected disability, Eddy Reyes, said veteran services can be an emotional issue.

"We have to be sure what we're asking for," he said.

Reyes, a former director of the Guam military buildup office under former Gov. Eddie Calvo, said he supports the resolution but added that there is a need to provide specific information to the VA.

He said these include a veterans population assessment, access to care, health needs, cost benefit analysis, infrastructure and resources, regulatory compliance, and feedback from local veterans groups.

"Without adequate and verifiable numbers, the emotional arguments could simply be outweighed if the financial investment cannot be justified on a cost benefit analysis," Reyes said.

Roy Gamboa of the local Veterans Commission said all they ask is to provide Guam veterans with the benefits they are due.

"If you need our veterans to rise up in any shape or form, by all means we're ready to do that," Gamboa told senators.

Delegate bets weigh in

Also testifying were Guam Del. James Moylan, and his rival congressional candidate Ginger Cruz.

"The reality is that there is a process with many moving parts and entities," Moylan said.

He said there is a joint venture between the VA and the Department of Defense for shared use of medical facilities. Congress extended the joint venture in the new fiscal 2025 budget, but Moylan acknowledged that while the joint venture has been available, it has never been implemented on Guam.

Moylan, who's seeking his first reelection, said he is working on other angles. For example, the phase-1 disability ratings timeline has been reduced from seven months in previous years down to 30 days currently, Moylan said.

Guam's congressional delegate said he is also working on a process that would enable veterans to pay their Veterans Health Administration, VHA, bills at the CBOC, instead of waiting weeks for an invoice and then having to mail payment to Honolulu, he said.

Cruz, meanwhile, said another flaw in the VA system is that it uses a model that undercounts the veteran population on Guam."I believe a more accurate approach could involve cross-referencing DD214 (military service) forms with Guam's REAL IDs to establish a baseline," she said.But it's a "false notion" that Guam must meet a "magic number" to deserve a regional center, Cruz said. Instead, it should be about "addressing the significant geographic challenges that make accessing care difficult and sometimes impossible for our veterans – which is a fundamental issue of fairness and obligation," she said.Cruz said $3 million to $4 million is spent annually just on airfare for Guam veterans traveling to Hawaii."Imagine if that money was invested instead in a Veterans Regional Office and Healthcare Center right here on Guam," she added.Taitague acknowledged that her resolution is not perfect."But if we keep making excuses, we'll be sitting here another 17 years that I've been here," she said.

Taitague said hers won't be the last resolution either, as she expects there will be others in the future if the issue isn't resolved.

The senator introduced a similar resolution during a recent meeting of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures, which was passed unanimously by the APIL leaders.