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PM Presents Petrocaribe Loans Bill; Opposition Bristles
posted (March 26, 2015)
Last night we told you about the Petrocaribe Loans Bill - which had the opposition in an uproar. Well, it was tabled in the House of Representatives today and set to go through all its stages in one sitting. The PUP Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee was outspoken in his criticism, calling it a dangerous price of legislation and a sign that the Prime Minister has gone mad. But today in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister didn't shy away from the legislation, he said it gave him great pleasure to introduce it. But he took no pleasure in addressing Espat:...

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Those on the other side - you know, let me try to restrain myself. Said that under this bill, if were to be passed, I would be able to write a Petrocaribe cheque to my family. How ridiculous? How absolutely outrageous? Mr. Speaker, if this bill is passed, all it does is to put beyond question our ability - the authority, the jurisdiction to continue to borrow from Apbel - to continue to make use of the Petrocaribe funds. All the monies will still be a part of the consolidated revenue fund of this country. The central bank will continue to keep the monies in the special account. Every time there is any withdrawal to continue to fund the transformation of this country. It goes through the Ministry of Finance under the complete supervision oversight of the Financial Secretary and all the officials in the Ministry of Finance. Periodically again, as we spend, we will come to the House with the supplementary bills to in fact indicate where the spending has reached, at a particular point in time - allow a debate on the spending that has taken place and then try to pass the supplementary appropriation. In fact, I am undertaking that we will do that half yearly. I've already signaled that we will come back with a mid-year budget, or if they want we can do it every 3 months. There is nothing to hide. We want the Belizean people to know the details. We want them to continue to be impressed by how very much we are spending on the transformation of their lives."

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"I want to place on the record that we object to the passage of this bill through all its stages today Mr. Speaker. This is not only a scandalous piece of legislation, it is unconstitutional and the Belizean people should have an opportunity to read this bill, to understand this bill and to express their views on this bill before it is passed through this House."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It does not surprise me that he said that while we intend to pass the bill through all its stages - I had not so indicated. He doesn't even know the standing orders. He doesn't even know the order - it is now that I say it sir. You've been here too long to be so absolutely ignorant."

Hon. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
"It is disgraceful that the Prime Minister of this country is using that kind of unparliamentarily language in this House."

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House
"What was the language member? Say it. What did he say?"

Hon. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
"Calling people ignorant."

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Mr. Speaker I moved and again, this is the appropriate time for those who are ignorant, which means lack of knowledge. When you are ignorant, it means, you lack knowledge."

And the back and forth continued in the house with both sides throwing words at each other. This is expected to intensify tomorrow when the bill is debated.

Outside the house, one protestor joined the cause. Ya-Ya Marin Coleman does her one woman protest every week - and this week she says she heard about the Petrocaribe bill and knew it was all wrong:..

Hon. Julius Espat
"He borrowed the money illegally. He spent the money illegally. He put the money in a special account at the central bank illegally. He came to the House, to try to confirm and validate retrospectively though a motion illegally and now his attorney, who is his brother, has informed him that the submissions that we have made in court is so strong, that he has to go in the direction of a bill and since yesterday we got information that's just what he did and today we were proven right. So, history is showing where he has gone wrong. But even this bill. This bill will give him the right to spend the money from here onwards, but it doesn't retroactively fix the errors that he has done in the past. No legislative bill can do that. So, he will still have to face those actions in court. The Prime Minister speaks to us as if we are ignorant. But he is trying to assume that the Belizean people are ignorant, when financial auditing and accountability will show if he is right or if we are wrong. We will not stop until at the end of the day it is proven that the Prime Minister has been lying to the people of this nation and we prove that he has been acting unlawful and we will continue. If we have to go to the CCJ we will."

Yaya-Marin Coleman - Activist
"I don't even know the details, but the essence that I got made me know this is not good for us and the way things happens around here, whether we agree or agree not, they will ram it down anyways - you see me. So, we will have to pay for it. This is a loan that we will have to pay for. So, let the record show this is how I choose to show my discontent that I am not with it. I am not with it under this administration, under the former administration - I know that I am not the only person who is not with it."

Marin Coleman was out there from morning into the afternoon.

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