Opposition Leader Explains Resignation from National Oversight Committee

John Briceño

Last week on June tenth, Opposition Leader John Briceño officially resigned from the COVID Nineteen National Oversight Committee. The committee was formed when the novel coronavirus pandemic broke and was co-chaired by Briceño and Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The number of cases has not increased significantly since March, and Briceño believes it is time for his party to move on. In a letter Briceño tells the Prime Minister that the P.U.P. will now focus on saving the economy. Briceño tells News Five that the P.U.P. has contributed to the COVID Nineteen response and will now shift its energy on the future of Belize.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“We first heard about COVID-19 and how it is affecting the different countries around the world, we felt that it was a time when the government and the opposition must come together to see how we can guide this country through this crisis, the pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic. So it was important for me and the Prime Minister to work and we worked well. But once the urgency or the major crisis has passed, not that it is over, but that we have it under control, and we have no more cases by the time I left it was about fifty days that there were no more cases of the virus in Belize, we were seeing that I think we can work better outside of the NOC, that where we can get ourselves better prepared. Belizeans need to understand that the virus COVID-19 is going to be here in September, December, March of next year. We now have to start to learn how it is we are going to live with COVID-19. I felt that it was time. I’ve done my part and the members of my party have done their part in the different committees and it is time to move on.”