Land Rights Activist Nigel Petillo Went live on Facebook yesterday, after coming across a government vehicle dumping and burning documents on a road off the George Price Highway. Petillo raised the alarm yesterday under the suspicion that if they did not have anything to hide they could have easily discarded the files without having to burn them. Well, tonight we have two sides of the story. Jomarie Lanza reports:
Yesterday Nigel Petillo came across a Resilient Rural Belize truck dumping and burning office paperwork in a bushy area on private land right off the highway in Camalote. It just looked very suspect and raised widespread public concerns as to whether the material they were burning was either sensitive or important public information. And when Petillo caught up with them he did not hold back
Voice of: Nigel Petillo, Activist
"How will you come and do this here, what kind of *** is this how will you come and burn fire and dump garbage at our place. You can't do that here, you don't have to do this, how will you all do this? The government seriously? Man I am so disappointed in you all please move your **** from here. Don't continue this, it's not fair my brother this is not right none at all we built this community and how will you do this ***. No man I can't understand that man there is no excuse here, this is the problem I have with a lot of people that does this **** ya man. I have a lot of videos online with these same behaviour here. How will you do this, don't bring that **** to me. This is a lesson you will learn today. This is not ****** right. This you shouldn't have done this man, how are you so cold? What made you decide you can come here and do this *** ya. Real talk why didn't you go to the dumpsite? So why are you doing this then? Nobody is arguing with you."
And today in a press release RRB concedes the manner of disposal does raise valid concerns. But they say the files date back to 2010 and 2012 and have no relevance to any ongoing project or initiative. They also say that the files that were disposed of are for the Ministry of Economic Transformation and have no affiliation to the Resilient Rural Belize program.
But that did not stop Petillo from rummaging through the charred remains at the burn site
Voice of: Nigel Petillo, Activist
"Contract, Europe Aid, Feeder road rehabilitation project Phase II Orange Walk Progresso, technical specifications, expenditure verification report, supply and work contracts. Same thing those people are doing here you know, it's the same thing we want to know why you have to come hide and burn up things when the dumpsite is there, where you expect all of us, every other Belizean to go and dump things, all these metal folders and things, lots of debris left here. What are these guys hiding?"
The Ministry says, it's hiding nothing. Quote, "The disposal of files has been and will continue to be done - there is simply not enough space to store all past and current files. It is a common practice."
The release says, quote, "there was no instruction given by the Minister of State nor the Chief Executive Officer authorizing the method or location of disposal. There are procedural methods that were clearly not followed, and an internal review is underway."
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