Speaker Shuts Down Espat on Petrocaribe

Julius Espat

The debate on the very controversial Petrocaribe Bill, introduced in the House on Thursday, was scheduled to follow the debate on the Budget. But Espat got in some early shots before he was closed down by the Speaker, saying that where Petrocaribe is concerned, the Prime Minister is behaving like an addict.

Julius Espat, Area Representative, Cayo South

“The Prime Minister is managing this country comparable to a substance abuser—how a substance abuser would operate or behave. He has this economy totally addicted to an illegal substance and that illegal substance is called Petrocaribe. It is important that the nation understands how deceitful and how unlawful are the actions of the Prime Minister when dealing with the Petrocaribe loans from the beginning.”

Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker of the House

“Member remember that the matter is before the court, member.”

Michael Peyrefitte

Julius Espat

“In essence, Mister Speaker, the loan agreement is contrary to the constitution and Finance and Audit Reform Act and is therefore void and wholly ineffective to create any change on the consolidated revenue fund. The loan motion does not satisfy the requirements of section seven of the Finance Reform Act. And is a failed attempt to legally appropriate the borrowing effective by the government purse on to the void loan agreement.”

Michael Peyrefitte

“I just mentioned it member. That is almost the exact thing in the application before the courts, you know.”

Julius Espat

“But Mister Speaker, I’m just doing a summary. I have the right.”

Michael Peyrefitte

“No, no, no, no. The matter is before the court. We agreed on that before you started. Member, member, you are free naturally to talk about Petrocaribe in that light, but you are not arguing your case in the National Assembly, you know.”

Julius Espat

“No, Mister Speaker. The problem is that the prime minister speaks of ignorance again and he said it again. But only an arrogant man looks at the Belizean people and calls them ignorant.”

At news time, the debate on that controversial Bill is raging in the House. The Leader of the Opposition says that the Bill is criminal and announced that as of today, the P.U.P. will not accept a single dollar from the Petrocaribe Funds and called on the government to withdraw the Bill. We’ll have more on the Petrocaribe debate on Monday.