26 days since scandal broke; P.U.P. demands that Penner resigns or be recalled

Francis Fonseca

Within two hours of the Prime Minister’s disclosure that there were more irregularities in the issuance of passports and the involvement of the former minister of state, the Opposition held a scheduled press conference. There are three scenarios playing out right now: a recall in Cayo Northeast, Penner’s resignation and both would result in a bye-election or Penner doesn’t budge and remains area rep. For the P.U.P., the situation means that the slim majority in the house could be reduced to only one seat; a dangerous scenario for the government in the house of representative. But chief among the topics discussed at Independence Hall by the People’s United Party is the possibility of a recall of disgraced area rep. Over the weekend, the opposition says it mobilized its foot soldiers to garner as many as eighteen hundred signatures from registered voters in the electorate to trigger the recall mechanism.  The Leader of the Opposition, Francis Fonseca, told the media this afternoon that it is now twenty-six days since the scandal broke and that since October fourth, it demanded that Penner resign or be recalled.

Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition

“The People’s United Party is united behind our candidate in Cayo Northeast Orlando ‘Landy’ Habet and we will fight, we will fight shoulder to shoulder with Landy to deliver that seat.  In terms of the petition, I am informed and Landy will provide an update a little later but I am informed that we have already over one thousand five hundred signatures so we are near the end of collecting all the signatures that we need.  So there is no question about the recall not going according to plan.  The recall is going exactly as planned. The prime minister must cause a comprehensive audit to be done of the extent of visas sold under this informal and official quota system.  We need to know, the Belizean people need to know who are the ministers in this cabinet who are engaged in selling visas, where is it is reported to us that these visas are being sold for as much as ten thousand dollars.  Ministers collecting money and only two thousand dollars going into the coffers of the government.  Where is the next eight thousand dollars going? And in many cases they are selling three, four, five of these visas per month.  So we need to know, the Belizean people need to know exactly which ministers of this cabinet were engaged in the sale of visas, who were the minister that the prime minister says he was begging not to continue selling these visas.  The Belizean people need to know.  Who were the ministers?  Who were the ministers he was looking at around the cabinet table.  Who were the ones he was looking at around the cabinet table and saying, “please, yo wah bring down di government if yo continue!”  We need to know who they were, who they are!” And why do our people feel so strongly about this issue?  The people feel so strongly about this issue brothers and sisters because the prime minister, Mr. Penner, Godwin Hulse, they have together, collectively bastardized and cheapened our nationality by selling our Belizean identity.  And they don’t only sell it to anybody out there; they have sold our national identity to criminals and international terrorists.”