If you follow the news, you'll remember that in March there was an ugly scene at the foot of the National Assembly Stairs. It was the scuffle between UDP Minister Boots Martinez, Mace Bearer Yellow Man Audinett and PUP Cayo South Operator Vaughan Gill.
They were fighting about 254 lots that Anthony Boots Martinez had secured in Cotton Tree Village for his Port Loyola constituents. Gill and his boss, the Cayo South representative Julius Espat alleged that Martinez and the Ministry of Natural Resources were disenfranchising Cotton Tree Villagers of land that should be set aside for their village.
Now, with Espat as their sponsor, the village council has secured a top law firm to take their challenge to the Supreme Court. They say that the ministry bypassed all the requirements in the Village Council, and Land Utilization and the Environmental Protection Act when it set aside the land for Port Loyolans. Those laws say that the village council and its lots committee have the authority and the autonomy to decide who gets land where within their village boundaries.
Today the village Chairman told us why they are not happy:..
Oscar Otero, Chairman - Cotton Tree (translated)
"The reason why they are suing the government is because they don't respect the village council from Cotton Tree and what they are doing is not right because all the privileges are supposed to be for Cotton Tree only. Yes the minister put these lots to outsiders and they say that the people of Cotton Tree will not get a piece of land from there. That is not supposed to be like that because that area belongs only to the people of Cotton Tree."
Apolonio Rodriguez, Vice Chairman
"They are not supposed to take everything for themselves; they still have to remember that Cotton Tree people need land also."
The village councilors say Andrew Marshalleck of Barrow and Company is their attorney. He was expected to file papers today - so no date has been set yet for hearing.
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