And while we had the chance, asked Faber about the Petrocaribe Rally that the UDP held last week at Tuesday's House meeting.
As we've told you, it's the first time that a ruling party has protested the Opposition Party, and as we told you, an element of that demonstration was to test the machinery in preparation for the municipal elections, which are a little over 4 months away.
Faber claimed that he brought out 12 busloads of supporters from Collet to take part in last week's rally. We asked him about a few of the criticisms which emerged in its wake. Here's how that conversation went:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"The people in my area especially came out. Some of them decided not to go to their jobs on that day because some of the very same work that they do in the constituency rely on the Petrocaribe funds, but we didn't pay anybody. We did not use any government funds or any Petrocaribe funds especially for that initiative - absolutely none at all, so it is purely out of support for the Prime Minister and for me it's a testing of the mettle, we are gearing up for the municipal elections. In those elections Collet, like the other constituencies in Belize City are going to have to deliver. The voting for the City Council election is going to be held constituency by constituency as far as I understand it - it's been so for the last few city council elections. So if the people in Collet are not with Patrick Faber and not with the UDP, you will see that plainly. So it is a testing of the mobilization efforts, that saw us work so hard to get those 12 bus loads of people."
Daniel Ortiz
"How do you make of those who interpreted the rally as a protest of the Opposition by the ruling party which hasn't been done before?"
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"Well I think it is not necessarily the case, it is a show of support for an initiative that clearly, because of the court challenge, we needed to show that this is an initiative that is supported by the people of this country."
Daniel Ortiz
"Has your party discussed whether or not they would be able to allay the fears that Petrocaribe fund and the UDP fanatic funds are separate and that there is no overlap or blurring of those two financial entities?"
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"Well as I said the evidence is there. In that House meeting on Friday, we put forward two supplementary appropriation bills: one for the last financial year and one for this current financial year up to the end of October. Every dollar that has been spent was itemized in the appendix to those bills. So it's not like no accounting has been done. This is why we can't understand for the life of us how the claim can be made that there are blaring monies that UDP is using it for their own slush fund."
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