'Inappropriate gesture' interrupts emergency session

An emergency session to address critical funding shortfalls Tuesday morning shortly derailed as senators got heated.  

Senator Joanne Brown was interrupted by Senator Will Parkinson as she criticized those who voted to pass the budget bill which shortchanged millions of dollars for the Guam Memorial Hospital, Guam Department of Education and Guam Cancer Trust Fund among other key priorities. 

It’s here Parkinson is accused of making an inappropriate gesture towards Brown, forcing a recess.  

“I hope the people of Guam saw that gesture of Senator Parkinson,” said Sen. Brown.

“Senator Parkinson, I’m sure that there were many people in the audience that just saw what you did. That was definitely out of order. I’m going to take a short minute recess,” said Sen. Taitague. 

Lawmakers were supposed to debate Speaker Therese Terlaje’s amendments to supplemental budget Bill 355 which would reallocate some $40.7 million of excess revenues. 

This includes appropriating $3.5 million to the Mayor’s Council of Guam. 

“As you know as they told us in the budget session, we short changed them in the original budget. We told them to take care of the community maintenance workers without giving them funds for that. So they estimate this would be the amount necessary to take care of that,” said Spkr. Terlaje. 

Dozens of mayoral staff, mayors and vice mayors there to lobby Senators for the money to pay their maintenance workers witnessed the incident. 

Piti Mayor Jesse Alig told KUAM it is “sexual harassment and not statesman like.” 

When KUAM asked Senator Parkinson what happened, he said, “No clue, I dusted off my shoulder and she went full karen. I was the one silenced by the acting chair abusing her power.” 

Meantime, despite the morning’s mishap, Senator Roy Quinata made an amendment to increase the mayor’s appropriation to $4.5 million, which successfully passed.

Speaker Therese Terlaje's statement on todays session