Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — “How would your administration increase basic government services to Manu’a?” was the second question posed to the three teams who attended last week’s second gubernatorial forum hosted by the American Samoa Bar Association at the American Samoa Community College Multipurpose Center.

The gubernatorial team of Gaoteote and Fai’ivae was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.

LEMANU & TALAUEGA

Candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga said one of the main problems for Manua is transportation, which “is probably one of the key elements” to support the island group.

“We believe that if we can tackle the area of transportation — meaning that we can fly the airplane, twice a day to Manu’a; run the boat, for supplies and what ever, maybe three times a week, if it calls for that,” he said. “ I think a lot of services would be provided to Manu’a, meaning people would be able to go back and forth.”

He said that many residents of Manu’a reside on Tutuila because all government services are not available in the island group, such as the hospital and he acknowledged the lack of government services in Manu’a, while citing transportation as the key to remedying the situation.

I’AULUALO & TAPAAU

Candidate for governor, I’aulualo Fa’afetai Talia said he and candidate for lieutenant governor, Tapaau Dr. Dan Mageo Aga, were recently in Manu’a and there’s “a lot of challenge with Manu’a.”

“Improvements to Manu’a is one of the priorities for I’aulualo and Tapaau as most of the residents have relocated to Tutuila,” said I’aulualo who outlined priority improvements, starting at the top with healthcare, followed by education, then transportation.

“We need to attend to very simple things. Right now there’s an inconsistency of delivering supplies to Manua. We can deal with that right away. But for the long term, I think we really need to look at allocation of resources of government — all the way from budgetary to procurement — making sure allocations for Manu’a are clear.”

And also make sure it’s within the law, with budget allocations to ensure delivery of service to Manu’a, he said.

Regarding transportation, he said “it’s one of the major issues that we’re going to deal with.”

He pointed out that if a resident in Manu’a needs to attend to an appointment at LBJ, that person has to pay the fare to travel to Tutuila. He said that if the government cannot take the service to Manu’a, than it should be the responsibility of government for paying the fare for the person to travel to Tutuila.

“It’s the responsibility of the government to make sure that this service, essential service, is available to people in Manu’a as much as to the people on Tutuila,” he said.

NUA & SATELE

Candidate for governor, Sen. Nuanuaolefeagaiga Saoluaga Nua, who is from Manu’a, didn’t hold back his complaints towards the government. He said Manu’a’s “primary problem is transportation.”

He said that for all these many years, it’s still the same problem in Manu’a with transportation and other issues. And every time there’s a gubernatorial race, he said, this same issue is raised and there’s a lot of promise of providing suitable transportation but the problem still exists.

Without adequate transportation service, there “is no means” to provide all government services to Manu’a, whose residents are also part of American Samoa and should be treated equally as residents of Tutuila.

He said all government services available on Tutuila should equally be available in Manu’a and reiterated that the main problem that needs to be addressed is adequate transportation.  He even suggested that the government purchase a “good” plane to help with transportation.

Samoa News will report in future edition on other questions from the forum.