Eduardo Pontaoe
21 Aug 2007

 

Mr. Jose Ceralde:

I’ll try my outmost to answer your query. It might not be to your satisfaction, but here it is.

Chapter 5, Article II, Rule 42, Nationality of Competitors . . . of the Olympic Charter states unequivocally;

1- Any competitor in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) which is entering such competitor.

2- All disputes relating to the determination of the country of the country which a country may represent in the Olympic Games shall be resolved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board.

Guam is a colony of the US and under the charter have the right and qualification to have an Olympic team or any athletic team independent from a US team. Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, though have more highly established relationship with the Federal Government, have the same right as Guam.

However, Guam is a territory while the Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth. The difference . . . on what I know . . . between a territory and commonwealth is in the application of statehood.

A commonwealth can apply for statehood while a territory like Guam can’t. In the 1990’s there’s a significant movement in Guam for commonwealth, which will give a political status like Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands but the federal government did not respond to Guam’s request because the Feds deemed not realistic, which argues Guam does not have the financial stability or self sufficiency to warrant such status, due to the fact that Guam until now . . . is reliant on federal dole.

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