Residents of Belize City are enjoying the newly rebuilt B.T.L. Park, despite its unofficial launch. Over the weekend, hundreds converged on the recreational space where they made much of its food stalls, pier and playground. While finishing touches are being added, Mayor Darrell Bradley says that it will be formally opened to the public on […]
Karen Bevans, the Chief Operations Officer of the country’s largest telecommunications provider, Belize Telemedia Limited, has announced her resignation, effective the end of March. All indications are that the news came as a surprise to her colleagues and staff at B.T.L. Bevans has enjoyed long tenure at the company, enlisting in 1989. In 2009, Telemedia […]
Following several meetings, press releases and interviews with both the Belize City Council and the Christian Workers Union, the issue of the redundant security workers has degenerated into little more than a ‘he said she said’ emotional back and forth. It’s actually become difficult to separate the emotion from the facts, as both sides keep […]
The B.T.L. Park is very near completion and it is extremely impressive. Take wide open spaces, full-time Police presence, colorful booths, adequate seating and aesthetics, fashionable and functional bandstand and the view, and what the Mayor has is a certifiable hit. But there are always nagging questions which accompany all major projects, like nepotism in […]
On Thursday night, we reported about a land grab in the Orange Walk East constituency. Tonight, there is another story which also involves land and money; plenty missing monies. On Thursday, we sat with an ad-hoc group from San Jose Nuevo Palmar, which is also in Orange Walk East. To understand the magnitude of this […]
The issue of revising the existing gun laws, in light of the recent conviction of police corporal Gino Peck for possession of unlicensed ammunition, has taken center stage in recent weeks. Peck’s case is frequently compared to that of GST Supervisor Reynaldo Verde, whom it is alleged that an unlicensed firearm was discovered by police […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Act 2014 was tabled in the House of Representatives on January twenty-ninth after pressure from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize to have the proposed law presented in parliament. While the bill remains to be passed and will have to go through nationwide consultations, the Belize Chamber of Commerce […]
This morning, a team from the Belize City Council met with CWU President Audrey Matura-Shepherd and the Labour Commissioner in downtown Belize City. The issue on the table remains the declared redundancy of twenty-six workers in the Council’s Security Department. This is the second meeting since the union took charge of the matter in late […]
As recent as two weeks ago, we reported that the Guadalupe Park in the Orange Walk East constituency ended up the hands of Adin Aragon, the son of the former area representative, Elodio Aragon Senior. In the days leading up to Sunday’s convention for the constituency, contested by the other Aragon, Elodio Junior, the prime […]
The meeting between the Labor Commissioner, the CWU and the Mayor concluded a little while ago at the office of the labor Commissioner. Word to News Five is that the commissioner declared that the redundancy of twenty-six security workers is to be put off until next week Wednesday and not this Friday. The Labor Commissioner, […]
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, […]
As we showed you in Wednesday’s newscast, Minister of State Edmond Castro spent twenty minutes in the House reading a prepared statement to explain, or at least attempt to explain, his role in the BAA cheque scandal. He was able to do so because the matter was raised on the adjournment by member for […]
That was the PM in the House on Wednesday. He maintains that there were only three questionable checks, but the truth is that there were a lot more than that. BAA board member, Lindsay Garbutt, confirmed to News Five in an interview that various checks to Bowen and Bowen were used to pay for […]
The Statistical Institute of Belize recently released statistics pointing to an unemployment rate of fourteen point two percent and an inflation rate of point five percent. As far as the economy is concerned, those statistics are relatively positive indicators, but the reality is that the perception on the streets is far different. In the […]
In August 2013, the government cancelled the lease held by the Ports of Belize Limited to the Commerce Bight Port in Southern Belize. That…after the Belize Bank seized control of PBL from Luke Espat. The bitter dispute which surrounded that seizure and the subsequent cancelling of the lease to the Commerce Bight Port might be […]
With the insults, condescending commentary and petty taunts out the way, the Prime Minister then disbursed some good news where infrastructure in concerned. The first bit of news is that work continues on sugar roads, to the tune of three million dollars, up from the two million first proposed. And right here in Belize […]
February fourth was the celebration of World Cancer Day. The theme was Debunking Myths and Building Awareness. Tonight in Healthy Living, we look at foods with cancer agents and foods that reduce your risk of cancer. Our specialist tonight will make you rethink the value between a carrot stick and a French fry. Evelyn […]
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 […]
