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As we told you, the PUP has its own well publicized opposition to the S.I. - so, shouldn't Belize's oldest mass party be the one taking the lead in organizing events like today's one? That's what we asked Opposition Leader John Briceno:

Daniel Ortiz
"The suggestion could be made that the party which is supposed to be able to mobilize people to lead national issues is simply riding the coattails of the unions when you all should be the leaders."

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"I will not concede that. We have been on the forefront on this matter. We are the ones that are challenging the government on this issue and it is a matter of taken it step by step. We are challenging the case, we are going to the Sarstoon, we are educating our people, we are still engaged with the government with this matter, so there is absolutely no case for you to say that we are conceding. But what we said we are prepared to stand up with any group, any organization that is prepared to stand up for this country. We love this country as much as anybody else. We did not want to dwarf the work of the teachers. This is about the teachers. They are the ones that organized this. They are the ones that are leading. All we are doing is playing a supporting role and we called a few people quickly. This just happened over the past 3 days and we got people all the way from Toledo and Corozal, in every district to come just to show their support. This is not the strength of the PUP and we are ready to make that mass mobilization, they are going to feel the strength of the People's United Party."

Briceno stressed that his party will move forward with their plans to challenge the law. He made the point that the Constitutional Challenge and their planned trip to the Sarstoon is in the works:

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"We have filed suit against the government challenging the SI. We believe that it is unconstitutional and that is why we felt it is important to put it on record that we are challenging that SI. Now, I know some people are saying, people that understand the court system that it could be that by the time this case goes in front of the courts, that the 30 day limit that the Prime Minister had put in would have been up. well whist we recognize that could be true, for us it is important to put the case for two reasons; 1) to put it on record that we are against it, bur secondly, should the government decide that they want to extend another 30 days, our case is already working its way through the system and hopefully we could get it listen in front of one of the learned justices. As to the Sarstoon, we have made it abundantly clear that we are going to visit the Sarstoon. We are working in setting a date. It's going to be before the 30 days is up. I am happy to hear that the government has decided to open up the Sarstoon somewhat, that if you go to the forward operating base and report, then you can be allowed to go to the Sarstoon and that is the case, the we are going to see if it is so. Because we are going and we are going to stop at the forward operating base of the BDF before we go on to the mouth of the Sarstoon."

While the PUP keeps saying that it will be going to the Sarstoon, no date has been announced.