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Budget Debate Continues; Hon. J. Espat Calls Petrocaribe An Illegal Addition
Fri, March 27, 2015
The budget debate continued today at the House of Representatives in Belmopan - and it went all day. After yesterday's session, there were 20 representatives left to speak - but it went along quite quickly and the Prime Minister started the wrap up at about 5:20.

We'll have a clip of that later, but first to the day's theatrics which inevitably came from the self-appointed bad boy of the House of Representatives, PUP Deputy Leader Julius Espat. In his response to the budget, he said government had become addicted to Petro-Caribe:..

Hon. Julius Espat
"That what we are presented with in this book Mr. Speaker, disguised as a budget, is useless and has absolutely no credibility. You see Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's continued use of supplementary appropriation bills and special warrants undermines the essence and the purpose of what a national budget should be."

"This is a continued abuse of the financial regulations of this country. In reality, uses this method of bypassing regulations to enable him to do his political spending. Clear examples of this are his Christmas Cheer program, his mother's day program and his back to school program. Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is managing this country comparable to a substance abuser - how a substance abuser would operate or behave. He has this economy totally addicted to an illegal substance and that illegal substance is called Petrocaribe. It is important that the nation understands how deceitful and how unlawful are the actions of the Prime Minister when dealing with the Petrocaribe loans from the beginning."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"Remember the matter is in court, member."

Hon. Julius Espat
"In essence Mr. Speaker, the loan agreement is contrary to the constitution and finance and audit reform act and is therefore void."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"He seems to be arguing...."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"Yes, I told him about it earlier. That is almost the exact query in an application before the court."

Hon. Julius Espat
"Mr. Speaker, I am just doing a summary. I have the right."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"No, no. The matter is before the court. We agreed on that before you started. Member, you are free naturally to talk about Petrocaribe in that light, but you are now arguing your case in the National Assembly."

Hon. Julius Espat
"No Mr. Speaker. The problem is, the signing of the agreement by the Deputy Prime Minister was illegal Mr. Speaker, because he didn't come to us, this honorable house."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"That is before the court, member."

Hon. Julius Espat
"But it's a fact. We can't hide it Mr. Speaker. This honorable house is the legislature that gives authority to the executive to be able to spend our money."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Mr. Speaker, again, on a point of order. We say the exact opposite, but you are right. This is a matter before the court."

Hon. Julius Espat
"The act that he is proposing has not come yet."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"But you are anticipating it. You will have a chance to debate that."

Hon. Julius Espat
"No. there is a motion that was presented last two weeks Mr. Speaker. I am not hiding that fact. I have it here."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"So, then what is the illegality of what you are talking about?"

Hon. Julius Espat
"The illegality is that the government cannot spend money, cannot borrow money, cannot do anything that has to do with the people's money, if it doesn't come here for approval."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"That is exactly before the court. I have seen the claim form. It is incumbent upon me to look upon the claim form. If you have seen the claim form....."

Hon. Julius Espat
"So, you are telling us that we cannot discuss Petrocaribe here at all?"

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"Not in the way you want to discuss it."

Hon. Julius Espat
"In which way would you like us to discuss it?"

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"No. look...."

Hon. Julius Espat
"Guide me Mr. Speaker. I am sure you would take my guidance. To put it to you then, you handcuffed yourself in the National Assembly when you took the matter to court."

Hon. Julius Espat
"Fair enough Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, due to the fact that the government is totally addicted to this Petrocaribe funds to finance their projects, he has done absolutely nothing else to help to drive this economy. The PM is his irrational exuberance, made the people understand in no uncertain terms, that the UDP administration is awash in money - in millions and millions of dollars. But Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister also made it clear, that such money was only for the benefit of those who voted UDP. Am I right or wrong Prime Minister? That is a fact and you can go back to the recording, because you know we have recordings now. And it seems to be a disease that both sides are getting the hit now. Remember, my neighbor and Mr. Castro - that just gives you a little going back in memory. I now have it a policy that anybody that meet with me, they leave their phones on the outside and my neighbor and I, we tend to leave the phone in the center of the street, so we don't really have a problem."

And as you saw in there, Espat made an unapologetic reference to secret recordings - and in so doing he seemed to very deliberately cast aspersions on his PUP colleague John Briceno. Espat has stated clearly he wants Briceno to apologize for accusing him of misappropriating campaign finds - which Espat said is a lie. And so, later on when Espat conceded to the PUP losing at the polls, Briceno made it clear only his stronghold in Orange Walk wasn't among the losers - here's that telling exchange:..

Hon. Julius Espat
"Mr. Speaker, the UDP won - they won."

Hon. John Briceno
"Julius, they never won in Orange East, please."

Hon. Julius Espat
"Mr. Speaker, they won, because even in Orange Walk, they took it from a large margin to a narrow margin."

We note also that opposition leader Francis Fonseca had his head turned for most of that badly behaved back and forth.

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