Ladyville residents protest land policy
No possession is more dear to Belizeans than that often mystical commodity known as land. And this morning in Ladyville a group of citizens who felt they were about to lose their piece of the jewel took their case to the streets. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin was there.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
The property in question is this twenty plus acres of land adjacent to the Vista Del Mar Community in Ladyville. The area has been cleared, surveyed and sub divided into one hundred and fifty five lots. Today however nineteen people who reportedly were promised a parcel of the prime property armed themselves with placards and protested in front of the offices of area representative Ralph Fonseca.
According to the protestors when they found out that the land had become available they went to Fonseca?s office where they were told that they could purchase lots for three thousand five hundred dollars but that they would need to pay down five hundred dollars to get the land surveyed. According to the villagers, there were no written agreements but they claim there was a verbal agreement that they were allowed to pay instalments in amounts they could each afford. The villagers say they are now being told if they cannot pay the entire amount they must get off the property.
Alma Alarcon, Disgruntled Resident
?I am student so I went to them and told them I can afford to pay them fifty dollars out of my school money. Now they are talking that they want everything or they will sell the land. I don?t even know if they done sell it already?
Ablado Burgos, Disgruntled Resident
?I personally went in to the office and checked about my piece of land. They told me I would have to pay down a down payment of five hundred which I paid a thousand dollars which I have a receipt for. And they told me that you could pay the land in five or ten years twenty-five dollars, ten dollars, five dollars whatever you could pay.?
Michael Hutchinson, Vice Chairman, Ladyville Village Council
?Give these people a chance man. That?s a sign that these people want to own something. And its only one or two people that aren?t paying, and are saying I won?t pay anything land should be a free thing. So all I am asking is that they give the people a chance to own a piece of land.?
Area Representative Ralph Fonseca says he believes the protest was politically motivated. According to Fonseca the purchases were given three months to pay for their land when that did not materialize they had no choice but to start refunding monies already and reclaim the properties.
Ralph Fonseca, Area representative
?There are nineteen of them that made their first down payment and refuse to pay anything more and want to start building on the land and that is the nature of the problem. Everybody else has kept their commitment they have started to, they have cleared the land, they have started to out in the drains, the streets and everything else all the survey work was done, titles are already being issued. We have nineteen people out there who are playing politics I guess.?
Michael Hutchinson
?They are at fault right, and I am saying whenever government seem to be at fault the people are the one to get affected. And it is always the poorer class of people.?
Fonseca says because there is no more government land available in the Ladyville area, his committee decided to make a deal with an absentee landowner and government acquired the twenty acres of land.
Ralph Fonseca, Area representative
?We put up front the money and the guarantee for the necessary compensation for the land. We surveyed the land, we did the actual design. I think it was for a hundred and fifty five lots along with streets and what not and then we work out the cost with government and with the Ministry of Works and the contractor and everybody else and the cost I think was something like three thousand two hundred and five dollars. They had to pay down the two hundred and to the survey that we had advanced already and then I think the minimum down payment was three hundred dollars and then they were suppose to pay off the rest to get up to three thousand two hundred and five dollars in three months. Most people did matter of fact many of them paid it up front.?
The disgruntled purchasers say they plan to continue with the protest if no acceptable solution is reached. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.
The disgruntled purchasers say they plan to continue with the protest if no acceptable solution is reached. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.
