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But the PUP did completely reject the narrative being offered by the Prime Minister. They said it's not any revelation that forced the dramatic change of position on Penner - it's the reaction of voters in the northeast to the UDP's round of weekend meetings. The PUP press conference was held at their party headquarters at Independence Hall Headquarters - which was filled to the capacity with supporters. That created an atmosphere more befitting a public meeting than a press conference, which the party leaders seemed to revel in:...

Henry Charles Usher, PUP Chairman
"Why is it that only today that after the weekend in which the Prime Minister was utterly refused in the Cayo Northeast Division - turn away by the people of Cayo that he concocted the ridiculous story about the CEO, the director of Immigration and the Minister sitting down over the weekend and finding new evidence against Elvin Penner."

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"This is what ladies and gentlemen caused Mr. Barrow to "wheel and come again" because that is what he did this morning "wheel and come again." To suddenly wake up this morning enlightened and he has joined with me when I put in black and white on October 2nd to Mr. Penner "resign or be recall," It is only today 26 days later, 13 days after we made the call for Penner to resign officially and many weeks after many other members of the public have been leading the call for him to resign - it's now that the Prime Minister has joined that call."

"The Prime Minister must cause an audit to be done of exactly how many passports were sold by Penner and to whom. Penner must disclose the extent of his wrong doing to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister is obliged to report to the Belizean people."

"Since the government is engaged in a cover-up, there must be a senate inquiry into this matter and the PUP Senators will continue to work towards this along with our social sector senators. We must push for an independent inquiry into this matter."

Senator Lisa Shoman
"Every single day that has gone by has proven that the rot in the Immigration Department is getting bigger and deeper and it is now a sink hole that is threatening to swallow the United Democratic Party."

And while the PUP accuses the UDP of deepening "rot", the UDP is accusing the opposition of taking very long to collect the 1800 signatures needed to trigger a recall petition. Well, today the PUP presented 1500 signatures - and said it is going on their timeline:...

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"The terms of the petition I am informed that over 1,500 signatures, so we are near the end of collecting all the signatures that we need."

Orlando Habet, PUP Caretaker Cayo Northeast
"Prime Minister Barrow said this morning that we were short of collecting those signatures and that it was not going as well as we thought it would. Well, as the Party Leader mentioned, it is going exactly as we wanted it to go."

Today, the Opposition leader also unveiled his own Penner conspiracy theory. He says the UDP had to protect Penner because he knows too much - but when faced with a logical dead end as to why they have stopped protecting him now - Fonseca inserted something un-expected he said they turned on Penner because he has gone away:..

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"The short blunt answer is that Mr. Penner knows too much about the corrupt deals taking place in many other ministries and he knows only too well the extent of the involvement of other members of the Cabinet in this very immigration and visa scandal. In other word, what kept the Prime Minister from moving was Mr. Penner making it very clear to the UDP and to him; "If I go down, all of us are going down together" and so they were afraid and this is why we have to understand that Mr. Barrow only came out today at this press conference in Belmopan beating his chest about taking action and no longer being able to associate with Mr. Penner when Mr. Penner was safely hundreds and thousands of miles away from Belize."

"They waited until Penner in their view do them no harm, but believe me from wherever he is he will get the information back to Belize."

And while the appeal of Penner as a do-good whistleblower somewhat escapes us - the fact is that there are many more secrets left to tell in the Immigration Department not least of which is the visa quota system which we have heard credible reports of. Today, the PUP seized on that - and the Prime Minister's passionate rejection of it at last week's press conference:..

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"He held his head in his hands and said "I warn the Ministers about Ministerial visa hustling" he warned them about it but what did he do? He did nothing to investigate it, he did nothing to stop it and this is very important because it simply exposes what every right-minded citizen now knows to be true that many of these UDP ministers notwithstanding their righteous pretentions; they like to pretend to be so self-righteous - so many of them are just pigs eating at the public trough - eating out our public funds. The Prime Minister must cause a comprehensive audit to be done of the extent of visas sold under this informal and unofficial quota system. The Belizean people need to know who are the ministers in this Cabinet - who are engaged in selling visas - where it is reported to us that these visas are being sold for as much as $10,000. Ministers collecting money and only $2,000 going into the coffers of the government. Where is the next $8,000 going?"

"Who were the ministers that the Prime Minister says he was begging not to continue selling these visas? The Belizean people needs to know. Who were the ones that he was looking at around the Cabinet table and saying; "please, you all will bring down the government if you continue." We need to know who they are and we need to know if this quota system was sanctioned by the Cabinet. It is our information that it was sanctioned by the Cabinet. We need to know under what authority it was sanctioned. We need to know who was involved. We need to know how many visas were sold under this program, for what price and to whom they were sold?"

Fonseca said there must be a commission of inquiry. He also called for a Senate Investigation, and, of course, a police criminal investigation. But, today, under heavy heckling from the home crowd at Independence Hall, Jules Vasquez asked if the PUP has the moral authority to demand all that:

Jules Vasquez
"How does the PUP have the moral authority to call for any investigation or sight any wrong doing? - when we know that under the faultless Ralph Fonseca Minister with Carmen Zetina as director 200 passports went missing when Mr. Zetina was director. We know that under Mr. Max Samuels 25 passports were approved by Mr. Samuels for Taiwanese who never entered the country. I am saying that passports have been, continues to be and ongoing area (I won't use the word hustle) of irregularity. The social partners certainly have the moral authority to ask for anything, but how can the PUP which has been a part of it (those irregularities) - how can you all muster the authority to ask for any inquiry?"

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"We not only have the moral authority Jules, we have a duty and obligation to do so. I think you've fallen victim to Mr. Barrow's hind sight approach to governing."

"Mr. Barrow and the UDP and those who advised him (you may be among those who advised him) - they would love nothing more than for us to keep talking about what took place 10 - 15 years ago. The reality is that you are right. The system is broken, it has been broken under both administrations but we are saying we are prepared to do something about it and that gives us the moral authority to speak on the issue."

And though the heckling continued, undaunted, we also asked whether the UDP with today's dramatic decision on Penner had taken away the PUP's best move:

Jules Vasquez
"From a tactical perspective would you say that the UDP has somewhat out match you in this particular play in so far as they too are now calling for a recall because of their apparent bankruptcy or illegitimacy or in-supportability of their candidate in Cayo Northeast, so now you can't say any more about intimidation or you can't say they are blocking a recall because they realize that he (Penner) is a dead duck. How does that place the PUP in a tactical position now?"

Hon. Francis Fonseca, PUP Leader
"They've been on a completely misguided political track. I was greatly surprise at the track they were taking - apparently all prepared to go down on behalf of Mr. Penner. Apparently over the weekend somebody came in, maybe they had a chat with you Jules and you advised them to change course. I think obviously the battle shifts. We will have to focus on a new candidate obviously, so yes, tactically the battle will have to shift, but certainly the UDP is not in a good position. Had they taken this decision 26 days ago they would perhaps have had a tactical advantage. I think the Belizean people seeing them make that decision today see right through it."