Government this week named former FIU director, attorney Marilyn Williams, as chair of the Integrity Commission, four years after the commission last met. But there is another appointment in law that government is resisting; the thirteenth senator. The Prime Minister recently said that it is not going to happen because it would mean that the […]
Earlier we told you of the boating accident on the Crooked Tree Lagoon that took the life of twenty year old Benjamin Gentle Junior. The flooding of the lagoon is occurs during the rainy season and water levels would always increase to the point where the causeway is impassable for months. The waters have been […]
The Belize National Teachers Union showed muscle today in Dangriga. The teachers of the south want their salary adjustment…they want to be respected…they want better working conditions and they want corruption in government to end now. Those demands rang out in Dangriga today as teachers marched on the culture capital under the B.N.T.U. banner. This […]
As we told you, Prime Minister Dean Barrow met with the joint union negotiating team in Belmopan today. Since he has already said as much in an unofficial but public capacity, it is expected that the figure of three percent in salary adjustment will be placed on the table, as well as the matter of […]
As you heard, the message of the teachers was trumpeted in Dangriga. And if there is strength in numbers, then the teachers showed muscle today. There is also support for their cause from the Opposition. This morning, Francis Fonseca was not only critical of the government’s approach toward teachers. As a former Minister of Education, […]
Police officer Gino Peck will be sentenced on Friday and his attorney Simeon Sampson is preparing to immediately mount an appeal to his sentence for ammunition offenses. Peck has the support of the rank and file of the police department which went as far on Wednesday to publicly say that it will be assisting with […]
The introduction of the Firearm Act back in June 2008 attracted opposition in many quarters because it was considered draconian. The legislation says that anyone found in a house or establishment where firearms and ammunition are found, regardless if it is unknown to that individual, the person will be charged and placed on mandatory remand […]
In mid-December, firebrand attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd was named President of the controversial Christian Workers Union, and little over a month after she is facing her first challenge. That’s because the posts of thirty-six security officers from the Security Department of the Belize City Council have been declared redundant and it is a complicated issue. In […]
The Leader of the Opposition touched on a number of issues of national importance when we spoke with him this morning. Francis Fonseca minced no words as it pertains to the government and the recent scandals that have rocked the Barrow Administration. Fonseca pointed out that the government has a slim majority and to protect […]
In September 2013, the Dangriga Market, a significant part of the Municipal Development Plan, was brought to a screeching halt by the combination of an allegedly incompetent contractor and corruption at the Social Investment Fund. The building was abandoned not even close to completion, leaving Dangriga vendors and residents inconvenienced and hurting. Since then a […]
There has not been a functioning Integrity Commission for years even though by law, the government must establish a Commission. In fact, the last recorded meeting of the Commission was in April 2010. For background information, BQ Pitts was the sitting Chairman of the Commission at the time and when he was appointed Attorney General […]
The Board of the Belize Airport Authority has been asked to resign en masse by Cabinet in the wake of the Castro cheque scandal and from what we know at least three members have already tendered their resignation to the Ministry of Transport. At last Wednesday’s House meeting, the Leader of the Opposition said there […]
This morning teachers marched in Dangriga, and they say the march is also against corruption in government. That particular topic has grown wings lately with the revelations coming out of the Belize Airports Authority, where monies were handed out for and on behalf of Minister of State Edmond Castro. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet […]
The P.U.P. leader also maintains that the actions which have so far been taken against disgraced former Minister of State Elvin Penner are lukewarm and not real. And the reason for that, he says, it that the U.D.P. continues to put politics before country. The margin between both parties in Parliament is razor thin, and […]
As we said earlier, Gino Peck will be sentenced on Friday morning for ammunition charges. On the eve of his sentencing, his wife, Loretta, made a compelling case on his behalf on Open Your Eyes. His son, Gabriel Roches, touched many when he spoke about the man he knows to be his father and the […]
Twenty-three year veteran of the Belize Police Department, Corporal Gino Peck, will stand in court on Friday to have sentence imposed upon him. On Monday, he was found guilty of possession of unlicensed ammunition and possession of prohibited ammunition. The court ruling stunned Peck and his attorney asked for time to make mitigation pleas, before […]
Gino Peck clearly enjoys the solidarity of the police force and this Friday it is known that their presence will be felt when he is brought to court to learn his fate for the ammunition offences. The gun laws and penalties are strict, some say even draconian, so the life of the Peck family has […]
The conviction of a Police Officer and his sentencing on Friday for ammunition found in his home has brought new attention to the Reynaldo Verde case. An unlicensed weapon was found in Verde’s washroom on January third during a search of his Belize City home, yet he was released that same day without charges being […]
The Statistical Institute of Belize today hosted a press briefing to provide an update on comparative unemployment, inflation and external trade statistics for 2013. Traditionally the institute is accessed only through releases or visits to the website…and frequently, those statistics are perceived to be manipulated for state purposes. That’s because public perception is a weighty […]
The figure for unemployment was also released by the S.I.B. But first, the largest employer is the private sector, no surprise here; it employs fifty-eight percent of the work force while twelve percent work for the government and twenty-seven percent are self employed. The S.I.B. also reports that in comparison to 2012, unemployment is fourteen […]
Today there was to have been a meeting of the National Environmental Appraisal Committee to consider the EIA on the Norwegian Cruise Line tourism project, but it was postponed. Information to News Five is that following a disastrous consultation effort in Independence last week Wednesday, NEAC members almost unanimously requested more time to address the […]
There is growing outrage among the ranks of the police force on the conviction of Gino Peck, a long serving officer of the force. But while his colleagues are standing behind the officer, is that the sentiment of the public at large? This afternoon, News Five was on the streets to canvas opinion on this […]
Today, the top brass and rank and file of the Belize Police Department, along with family, friends and supporters joined to welcome the eighty-ninth recruit squad…the men and women who will now don the uniform to serve and protect in every corner of our nation. The graduation today was the culmination of three months of […]
Government announced in November 2013 that it will be spending seventy-six million dollars on infrastructure works across the country. This morning, the Inter-American Development Bank signed an agreement with G.O.B. for five hundred and forty thousand US dollars to support the preparation of feasibility studies and social and environmental assessments for the rehabilitation of thirty […]
Late this evening, Cabinet issued a release in response to an ongoing check scandal involving U.D.P. Minister of State Edmond Castro and the Belize Airports Authority. Castro came under fire after checks surfaced drawn on the operating account of the BAA which indicated that he had gotten money from that body for personal and political […]
