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The Bill was pushed through the House on Friday with lightning speed, and to pre-empt any move on the reserves, it was rushed to the Senate today for a rare Monday meeting. Again, all sides, the PUP, the UDP and the social partners agreed unanimously to support the bill - but some did express reservations about the uneven results after years of battling the Ashcroft Alliance:...

Hon. Rufino Lin, Business Senator
"I've read the accommodation agreement. I am familiar with the many financial allowances and economic benefit afforded and I cannot begin to understand how it is that two Belizeans, two powerful Belizeans can draft such a one-sided agreement to the detriment of this country - to the detriment of all of us here present. The fact, if allowed to continue as it was, making all of us Belizeans and tax payers really servants of the Lord."

"Mr. President, the private sector has only one vote in 13. But If I had 1,000 votes, a thousand times would I vote to protect Belize and to keep our foreign reserves away from the reaches of the Alliance."

Hon. Osmany Salas, NGO Senator
"I don't think we have much of a choice Mr. President. We may in fact be forced to support the bill due to the exigencies of the situation. I think the former government must be called out yet again for the reckless and secretive alliance which they arrange with Lord Ashcroft, that has been destructive to our economy and our finances."

"There is something very wrong with the secretive nature that our past and present governments have managed or handled some of national affairs, particularly as it relates to the matter at hand. I have to ask, is it that some of us have placed the almighty dollar ahead of people and country?"

Hon. Aldo Salazar, UDP Senator
"It is incumbent upon us as a people to resist, and I don't mean only by legislation, we must resist as a people any attempt to try to collect on these sums that have been awarded which our court has said are undemocratic and unconstitutional."

Hon. Elena Smith, Labour Senator
"The truth of the matter is that both governments have made, if we want to say some questionable decisions and we can also say that one government started the mess and the other added to the mess. That is the truth of the matter. We can't hide from that. As a result now we are now at a place where we must ensure the protection of our assets and so this is not about which government is wrong or which government is right, or this is not about they should have done better or had they not done this, we would not be here. It's a matter of looking out for the best interest as I said earlier of our country and our people."

Hon. Mike Peyrefitte, UDP Senator
"Referring to the speech of Senator Salas, he made one comment questioning whether or not secret arrangements of past and present governments will continue. No sir, not this government. Take exception to that government Senator. We have never done anything in secret. You may not like what we do, what we do may not be popular, because it required medicine for us to stay afloat, but it is never ever secret."

"This piece of legislation is born out of the administration of 1998-2008 and the Kleptocracy that that was. Senator Salazar would be nice, I prefer the raw truth. You see Mr. President, the stench that came from that period in our history was such that it attracted vultures and in particular one king vulture. If I really wanted to say what I wanted to say, I would say king vulture is too nice of a word for this person. The more appropriate word would be john crow. This is not against one person. This is against who ever may want to do it. But one person deserves honorable mention, because he is the leader and the king vulture."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay, PUP Senator
"I want to start by putting on record that in my personal capacity and in my professional capacity I am affected by the legislation that is before the senate. It threatens personal criminalization of me and it threatens my practice of law. Whilst it is very easy to call names, make fun, find pejorative language to call people, it's important that we not miss the point and it is important that we do not miss the context. And so one cannot avoid the fact that these agreements were signed. No one can deny that fact. The question is when there was one side saying its legal, government saying its illegal - provides for arbitration and you go to arbitration, the government doesn't go and defend our interest."

"No one, absolutely no one in this chamber, myself included Senator Peyrefitte will vote against a bill that seeks to give further immunity to the assets held by the Central Bank. No one."

"We are here today because in my opinion our interest was not protected when the day was called for defending Belize's interest in the arbitration proceedings. No one went."

Hon. Paul Thompson, PUP Senator
"The Prime Minister could have settled this thing a long time ago, but he choose not to. He could have settled this in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 or September of 2015. But he choose not to. The Prime Minister says that the arbitration award is a separate issue and that he will not pay them. But haven't heard that story before? When it came to the accommodation agreement he said 'this agreement is vile, I am not going to pay it' and what did he do? We are paying it right now."

"When it came to the loan from BCB for BTL, he said 'over my dead body will be pay for this.' and what happened? He agreed to pay."

Hon. Valerie Woods, PUP Senator
"Mr. President, it's a government rushing to elect enact a law because of one man and it's a people subjected to unnecessary litigation for the past 9 years because of one man."

"Mr. President the fact is only lawyers benefit from this. Lawyers from both sides. Only lawyers benefit from these types of bills, including those who are relatives of the Prime Minister and lawyers on record for Belize Telemedia and before anybody jumps on the other side to say and point out to me, yes I am married to a lawyer and one who also work with the Ashcroft Alliance and I am good friends with my senator colleague who is a lawyer. But I stand here well aware of the fact and in full conviction of what I just said. Because we know it to be true and I am not casting any aspersions on the legal community or any lawyers that serves in that community. But let's be honest. But we are all tired of it Mr. President. We are all sickened by it."

A division was called for at the end of the debate, and all 13 senators had to state their vote. And just as in the House of Representatives, all Senators voted in favour. So the bill has passed through the House and is now just awaiting the Governor Generals assent to become law.