In response to a sustained outcry against the Firearms Act, as amended in 2008, Minister of National Security John Saldivar stood in the House on Wednesday to say that his government is prepared to look at the Act with a view to possibly revising it. The matter was actually brought up by P.U.P. leader Francis […]
Following a Special Sitting of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the senate met today in Belmopan. Seven bills were brought from the House, including proposed legislation to deal with a threat by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force to blacklist Belize for not doing enough to tackle money laundering. Normally, the Senate would […]
In responding to Shoman’s concerns, Leader of Government Business Godwin Hulse, echoed a similar sentiment, particularly where it pertains to laws that will inevitably have to be revisited. Nonetheless, he proceeded with the second reading of the bill. Godwin Hulse, Leader of Government Business “When you make laws without an out; that in fact, […]
The House of Representatives had a full agenda for its special sitting today. It is the second sitting since the start of the new year convened primarily to avoid blacklisting by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. But the big stories tonight take us outside the House where the Prime Minister took questions from […]
In recent months, the Elvin Penner passport scandal followed by the visa hustle, the Castro Airports Authority cheques and the “hotbed of corruption” in the land departments, among others, have shaken the Barrow Administration to its core. And the Prime Minister has been found defending every scandal because of the razor-thin majority in the […]
While the Prime Minister was short on details outside the House, Minister of State Edmond Castro was long on prose as he rose for the first time since the BAA check scandal broke to give a statement. Castro has come under persistent fire also because of the visa hustle. Today, he rambled for twenty minutes […]
All sittings are generally ‘special’ in nature, and this one was no exception. It offered a little good, some bad and more than the usual ugly. There’s a whole lot to get into tonight, including a nasty exchange of words between members. But first we go to the man of the hour, Edmond Castro. […]
The United Democratic Party is in the middle of conventions to select what they refer to as caretakers in the fourteen constituencies where that party does not have an area representative. This past weekend, the battleground was in Orange Walk East, where Elodio Aragon Junior defeated David Constanza. All indications are that Aragon Junior was […]
There’s a lot of hard news out of the House of Representatives, but there was also a prolonged exchange, which has become a trademark of every sitting. That was provided during an exchange between three members from Orange Walk. It started out with allegations of land corruption by member for Orange Walk South Jose […]
Last Tuesday, former FIU director Marilyn Williams was appointed as the new chair of the Integrity Commission, after approximately four years of the agency being defunct. The Prime Minister told us today that they are serious about activating the Commission, and members have already been selected. The appointments will be announced at the sitting […]
A Honduran woman is the latest international fugitive to be caught in Belize. Forty year old Blanca Garay Rodriguez was on the run since early January; she was picked up at around eleven thirty in the morning at house at the Mile eight community on the George Price Highway. Rodriguez’s detention is considered major bust […]
Fresh off a series of rallies and marches, the Belize National Teachers Union took stock today of a series of industrial actions held throughout the month of January. The final stop was last Friday in Punta Gorda and the biggest turnout was in San Ignacio where the teachers braved the rain. The most militant and […]
At the height of the recent demonstrations, there were heated exchanges between the Belize National Teachers Union and the government. The prime minister called B.N.T.U. President, Luke Palacio, a windup doll, while the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, was referred to as a little boy. But despite the adversarial relationship, none of the insults are […]
Since last week the fate of security workers declared redundant by the City Council has been under much scrutiny. Those workers received their layoff letters on January twenty-third, and the Christian Workers Union jumped into the fray soon after. The union claimed that proper procedure was not followed, and the interests of the workers had […]
Matura-Shepherd says that by only asking for two weeks, she is showing extreme goodwill, since the union could demand its month notice. That request has been formally submitted to Mayor Darrell Bradley, who had previously agreed to give workers until this Friday. But the CWU says it needs more time to do a proper examination […]
And our question for tonight is: Do you think the gun laws should be revised? Yes or No. Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com.
In 2007, B.D.F. Corporal Norman Rodriguez was diagnosed with a condition called arterio-venous malformation on the brain. It’s not a tumor, but it is something like a growth…an abnormal connection between arteries and veins. Rodriguez allegedly received some medical assessment and treatment in Belize, but his condition has deteriorated to the point where he cannot […]
Mayor Darrell Bradley is back in town and let’s just say he is not ecstatic about insinuations that his Council treated employees of the Security Department unfairly. The posts of thirty-six employees of the City Council were declared redundant via letter on January twenty-third. The redundancy came about as a result of the privatization of […]
A Canadian businessman was chopped multiple times as he and his two year old daughter headed to his business in Benque Viejo del Carmen. He is the third Canadian to be a victim of violence in recent months, the two others were murdered and the weekend incident has raised alarm bells for the Canadian and […]
On Friday Corporal Gino Peck, long-time intelligence cop assigned to Precinct Two, was sentenced to fines totaling six hundred and fifty dollars. Peck was convicted last Monday of possessing prohibited and unlicensed ammunition, following a search of his home by the Gang Suppression Unit in 2012. As he awaited sentencing Friday, top brass of the […]
GSU boss, Marco Vidal, has come under scrutiny during and after the trial and sentencing of Corporal Gino Peck. The search on the home of Peck on January twenty-first 2012 was conducted by members of the Gang Suppression Unit. And since the current top brass of the Police Department are saying this case should never […]
Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lyn Vidal has also responded to queries into the Peck case following trial and sentencing. Following mitigation pleas on his behalf, Peck was fined for the ammunition offences, as opposed to being confined. The decision by Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith was taken after the D.P.P. pointed out to Peck’s […]
Last Friday, a tragic boat accident on the Crooked Tree Lagoon, involving two Coast Guard boats, claimed the life of twenty year old Benjamin Gentle Junior. Eight others, all high school students, were injured and rushed either to the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk or the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City with […]
The charred vestiges of a passenger van near mile twenty-five on the George Price Highway was a spectacle for onlookers traveling the stretch of road around two o’clock this afternoon. While we have not been able to ascertain the cause of the fire, News Five understands that a commuter bus traveling towards Belize City from […]
Corporal Gino Peck will serve no jail time after he was convicted of possessing prohibited and unlicensed ammunition. Instead, the veteran officer, with twenty-three years of service under his belt, was sentenced to pay fines totally six hundred and fifty dollars for the offences. The sentencing was scheduled for nine this morning, but the decision […]
