P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca told us that he has a team ready to go to work collecting signatures, but he decided as a courtesy to give Penner a chance to do the right thing. In the meantime, Fonseca is applying pressure in another quarter. Today, P.U.P. Senator Lisa Shoman called for a Senate inquiry into […]
Deputy Mayor Eric Chang returns from Taiwan on Thursday to face the blaring music of his alleged involvement in the existing passport scandal. Chang is accused of being the courier of a fraudulent Belizean passport to imprisoned South Korean businessman, Kim Wonhong, a few weeks ago. While Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley has gone on […]
The issue of the passport scandal was also placed squarely on the floor of the senate by the opposition and we’ll have that coming up. Following today’s special sitting of the Senate, the Minister of Immigration, Godwin Hulse, gave the media an update on the current investigation into the passport scandal. Hulse refrained from commenting […]
The opposition has already said that it will be triggering a recall if Elvin Penner does not resign by October seventh. In the senate today, Lisa Shoman of the P.U.P. introduced a motion on the passport scandal asking for support for an investigation. According to Shoman, the issue of such national importance that she believes […]
It has been twelve days since we first broke the story on the issuance of a Belize passport to a South Korean national who had never set foot in Belize and who obtained a passport while he was sitting in a Taiwanese jail. Cayo Representative Elvin Penner was dismissed from cabinet for his involvement. Last […]
On Monday, Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse commented on the ongoing investigation into the recent passport scandal involving junior minister Elvin Penner who has since been dismissed from cabinet. While a internal inquiry has is taking place, there are controversies surrounding the investigation since it is being spearheaded by the substantive minister. Today, outspoken legal […]
But will there be a criminal investigation into the current passport scandal? There should since there is enough to suggest that a crime was committed in the issuance of a passport to South Korean national, Kim Wonhong, who was behind bars in Taipei when he got the passport on September ninth. Elvin Penner lost his […]
While the issue of the passport scandal took center stage in the House last Friday, amendments to the Criminal Code as they pertain to sexual offenses against children and persons with mental disabilities were also introduced. Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis Barrow has been an advocate for the revision of the dated […]
The government announced today the formal opening of the Belize Infrastructure Limited. The interim general manager of BIL is Christy Maestre. If the name sounds familiar that is because Maestre was contracted as the project director of the Sustainable Tourism Project where she managed thirty million dollars of infrastructure and construction projects. BIL was established […]
Primary school teachers across the country, employed under the Catholic Public Schools system, are tonight awaiting the processing of salaries through their respective banks, following a delay in the payment schedule for the month of September. Wages are often deposited by the last Friday of every month; however, a problem with the payroll, which went […]
While the hiccup caused a delay in payment, there were teachers from several districts, including Orange Walk, who stayed away from their classrooms today. Their abstention, says Faber, was unwarranted. Reporter “Did this particular problem affect pensioners as well, past teachers?” Patrick Faber “You know, I am not certain. I think that once […]
The current passport scandal involving the fraudulent issuance of an official Belizean travel document to imprisoned South Korean businessman, Kim Wonhong, in Taiwan has seen the dismissal of Cayo Northeast area representative Elvin Penner from Cabinet. While the prime minister’s decision to fire Penner from his post as Minister of State in the Ministry of […]
The media also got an update from the Minister of Immigration himself today on the investigations into the passport scandal. But while Godwin Hulse commended the new and improved systems in place at both the Immigration and Nationality Department, he chided the ousted minister for his involvement in facilitating the issuance of a Belizean passport […]
The last demonstration on Independence Hill in Belmopan was held in February, so it’s safe to say that in light of the recent controversies one was overdue. There have been a number of salacious scandals in the past two weeks, including the SIF Dangriga Market and the passport fiasco. The combination of those burning issues […]
While former Minister of State Elvin Penner was nowhere to be seen today, his colleague Edmund Castro took his usual seat in the House. Castro has thus far escaped official sanction after allegations that he acted improperly towards a woman while on a trip to Taiwan last week. It is said that the female protocol […]
As we reported earlier, the House meeting today saw both sides of the floor trading barbs over the passport scandal, which has seen the Minister of State, Elvin Penner fired and several employees of the immigration department put on suspension. But the business of the day was actually to table several bills. One such law […]
Documents proving that former Minister of State Elvin Penner participated in every step of the current passport scandal have surfaced. Those documents are the nationality certificate and the recommender declaration for one Kim Wonhong, a national of the Republic of Korea. Both of them bear Penner’s signature, and one bears his certification that he is […]
Tonight, former Minister of State Elvin Penner has removed himself from scrutiny even as calls for his head continue to saturate the public arena. Government bureaucrats at the highest level seem intent on complicating the issue. But with the emergence of documentary proof, Penner’s complicity cannot be questioned. They say the proof is in the […]
To recall or not to recall…that is the question. Or at least it’s the political issue. That option remains open to the Opposition which hasn’t said much at all on the matter. In general elections 2012, the U.D.P. won by a narrow margin of seventeen to fourteen seats, which means that if two U.D.P. representatives […]
The dismantlement of the Belize City Center commenced earlier this week with a workforce of almost a hundred able men tearing down what was once the premier venue for sports and entertainment in the Old Capital. But tonight, one man remains in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, following an accident earlier today […]
Despite strong objection from the Belize Tourism Industry Association, particularly from six of its past presidents, regarding the introduction of cruise tourism to southern Belize, Norwegian Cruise Line has been garnering support from residents of Stann Creek and Toledo districts. Since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Belize in mid-August, a public […]
There has been very loud silence from the Ministry of Immigration in the wake of the recent passport scandal. The only slight murmur came when a press release offered that three staffers were to be suspended. Two of those staffers are very junior staff in the passport section. Other than that, official information is non-existent. […]
And while the PSU draws attention to the nationality process, Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse today asked for patience. He offered no new information, only proclaiming that there will be no attempt to whitewash the matter under his watch. He also took credit for the measures in place which brought this matter to light. That’s […]
The Coastguard this morning confirmed what has turned out to be quite an embarrassing incident on Independence Day. It involves Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, a guest of honor during this year’s September Celebrations. At the request of the government, P.M. Skerrit arrived on September eighteenth and that night, he was hosted to dinner; but his […]
There is another scandal that has remained in the headlines since it first broke. We are referring to the million dollar Dangriga Municipal Market Project which was being rehabilitated through the Social Investment Fund. This morning, SIF went back to Dangriga to officially take over the project which was abruptly stopped on September twelfth because […]
