But today she reflected on their time working together during the Maya Land Rights issue, and how his passing now makes her the most senior parliamentarian in the house - by age.

Dolores Balderamos, Minister of Human development
"We are very saddened that the passing of Hon Mike. We used to call him iron Mike, and with good reason because when he took a stance on some thing, he was absolutely committed to that, and I think that the stances that he took were always in support of the people of Toledo. Toledo in particular his constituency. He held some very strong views I can share with you that he was not at all in favor of the proposals for the Maya communal land rights. You know he said we are all Belize and we should all have the equal right to land. He was very vocal about that and we had to work with him. Because we have different opinions and respect one another. I can tell you about a few weeks before the budget debate. I had a little chat with him and it was absolutely cordial and respectful, and he did attend our ministerial meeting on the Maya land rights issue in December. And he made very valuable contributions. And we took those contributions into account. So I want to say in his memory, we thank him for all the work he has done and I want to say this. With the position and the strong stance that he took it Forced us to look at a different point of view, and not only because of that, but because it is the correct thing to do. we made it clear that whereas we need to implement the judgment of the Caribbean court of Justice in relation to the Maya case we must do so, keeping in mind the balance that we have to maintain and also forgetting the constitutional rights of all Belizeans."

Funeral arrangements for Mike Espat have not yet been announced.