Carl Gutierrez is on a mission to accomplish what no one else has been able to do for Guam: Convince the U.S. government to approve a visa-waiver program on Guam and the CNMI for Philippine citizens to vacation here. And to do this, Mr. Gutierrez – the popular former governor and now president of Guam Visitors Bureau – is working his networks at the highest levels of the Philippine government to get Ferdinand Marcos to make this request to President Biden.
In late August, Mr. Gutierrez met with several leaders of the Philippine National Congress on a strategy to convince President Marcos to push the visa waiver program with his American counterpart.
The visa waiver program would allow Philippine citizens to use their passports to visit Guam for short periods at a time. Mr. Gutierrez believes opening up this tourism pipeline will aid Guam in a quick economic recovery. He is not alone in that faith. Jesse Lujan, who helps lead the legislature’s tourism oversight committee, and Guam’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Jim Moylan, both have announced their push for the visa waiver program.
The former governor’s strategy is simple. In his first overtures to the Philippine government, he leveraged his relationship with Philippine Congressman Edwin Olivarez to secure support from House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Mr. Romualdez is first cousin to Mr. Marcos. Mr. Zubiri is second in the line of succession to the Philippine presidency.
Mr. Marcos’ office has yet to announce support, if any, for the effort.
If he manages to convince the Biden government to make the change, such a change would occur on an administrative level under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
