7 News Belize

Hon Speaker Speaks On Finnegan/Baldermaos Garcia Dispute
posted (September 30, 2013)
It didn't make it into Friday night's news - but at Friday's house meeting, Speaker Mike Peyreffitte made a statement on the ugly back and forth between PUP Member for Belize rural Central Dolores Balderamos Garcia and UDP member for Mesopotamia Michael Finnegan. It happened over 6 weeks ago - but Friday was the first house meeting since. Peyrefitte said they both had done wrong:..

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"The member for Belize Rural Central made essentially 3 comments about the Sergeant at Arms. One of them I found to be a legitimate concern and 2 of them unfortunate. The 3rd comment raised by the member for Belize Rural Central concern the Sergeant at Arms drinking a beer within the precincts of the National Assembly and other behaviors."

"This I consider to be a legitimate concern for the member for Belize Rural Central if in deed these behaviors were true. I have spoken to the Sergeant at Arms and told him that while I have never seen him behaving inappropriately and no evidence has been brought to me to show that he has - he must make an extra special effort to not even appear to be behaving inappropriately."

Now, on the issue of an apology - which Finnegan never gave directly to Balderamos Garcia, Speaker Peyrefitte said that wasn't so easy to get from either of them:..

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"The Leader of the Opposition has pointed out that he has not however apologized personally directly to the member from Belize Rural Central and the Leader of the Opposition in his affirmation letter is requesting that I compel him to do so. I will not even attempt to compel the Minister to apologize personally to the member from Belize rural Central because before I would even think about doing that I would only be fair for me to compel the member from Belize Rural Central to apologize personally to the Sergeant at Arms because her comments about him were also unacceptable. However I will also not even attempt to compel her to apologize."

"I will however encourage the minister and the member to meet private, work the matter out and move on. The people of Belize are focused more than ever on the proceedings in their House."



Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize