Government reacquires land valued over a million dollars
Over a thousand acres of land in Cotton Tree will be sold off. The land has been squatted on since 2003 and in the past few months over six hundred persons have expressed interest in owning the land. It got ugly when a resident of the area agitated others to lay claim to the land. According to Area Representative for Belmopan, John Saldivar the land is valued at close to a million and a half dollars and will be reacquired by the government. The parcel of thirteen hundred acres at mile forty on the Western Highway is privately owned but the Taiwanese owners abandoned it for several years. This Tuesday, Cabinet agreed that in addition to usurping the land, it will also subdivide it for farmers. Saldivar says that anyone interested in acquiring a piece of the land has to be prepared to go through the regular channels and apply.
John Saldivar, Minister of Public Service
john saldivar
“I had intention of taking the matter to Cabinet to get the land acquired from the current owner, who is a Taiwanese absentee owner, who is not in the country, and reportedly either dead or in jail. I had intended to go to Cabinet to ask for that land so that we could have a land program for farmers from Belmopan constituency. I mentioned it to a Nigel Petillo, my intentions, to go and acquire the land and he jumped the gun, and went and informed his people, and his friends and other people and it has now reached a point where over six hundred persons are expressing interest in the land. That’s the problem we are presented with now where my plans to acquire the land for farmers in the Belmopan area, it has been derailed and now we have a whole ground swell of persons who want the land. What has happened now is that government has gone ahead with my recommendations to acquire the land. It’s only one thousand, three hundred acres of land from what the ministry is telling us. So It’s certainly not a big piece for over a thousand people. Nevertheless, we have decided to acquire the land and make a subdivision for farming plots to those who will follow the procedure and apply to ministry of natural resources.”
Jose Sanchez
“What is the value of the land and what will you do with the people already squatting there?”
John Saldivar
“I’m not too sure of the value. The land is a thousand three hundred acres and if you value that at a thousand dollars per acre, it would be one point something million. What will be done with the people who are currently there, they will be respected. Apparently they were authorized to go on the land by the chairman of Cotton Tree to go on the land back in 2003, who purported to act on behalf of the owners. So they were given permission back then. So the original squatters will be considered and they won’t be forced off the land.”
Jose Sanchez
“In terms of the taxes that the Taiwanese business man might have owed, do you know how much that is?”
John Saldivar
“My understanding is that it is close to two hundred thousand. It might be more but it’s not one businessman. My understanding is that it is several businessmen, several plots to make the one thousand three hundred acres and the taxes were close to two hundred thousand.”
Jose Sanchez
“In terms of what they paid for it, are you looking at the possibility of litigation if any of them returns?”
John Saldivar
“No, government is well within its rights under the land acquisition act to acquire. Yes, they can go to court to query over the value and that is with all land acquisition; government sets a value and if the person from who we are acquiring the land doesn’t with that value they can take it to court. That is what normally happens. I would imagine that is somebody comes forward at this point, that is what they would have to do but in terms of the land itself, the land acquisition act empowers the government to do this and we have approved that it be done.”
If you are interested in acquiring a portion of the mile forty land, you can apply directly to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. The Cabinet release, earlier this week, strongly advised any squatter from making any new clearings.
Saldivar where is the evidence that the owner/s of the land is in jail, or dead?
This is the way of the lands department, and saldivar is their poster boy , another attempt to sleaze money out of people’s pockets.
Big corrupted illiterate thief.
I am now more than convinced, that this government is anti-Belizean. In other words, this government hates grassroots Belizeans. From since they took office, all policies were and continue to be againts grassroots Belizeans. Just recently Dean Barrow commented “I feel vindicated” in referring to a ruling handed down by the privy council to allow the government to amend the constitution to take away our rights of access to the courts. Then they took away the Boledo again from grassroots Belizeans and gave it to the Chinese….Now here we are again. Just imagine, over six years ago, some immigrants acquired piece of the land in Cotton Tree. The UDP got into office and turned a blind eye to it. Now as we grassroots beilzeans want to acquire piece of it in the same manner, this minister John Saldivar steps in and does all he can to ensure that we don’t get it. All of a sudden now, it is suitable to apply the “right” procedure to acquire the land. You here what he said “they will respect the squatters” because the chairman allowed them to squat. Well hell, the chairman of cotton tree was also present at the meeting where Mr. Pettillo had his meeting. Which means he endorsed the movement. So how come this JA of a minister could respect the squatting of the immigrants and disrupt the movement of his grassroots Belizeans. More and more I see why Presidents and Prime Ministers are assisinated. These guys are asking for it!
Sorry, but i had to ask this question.
what the hell is grassroots Belizeans?