Minister of State in the Ministry of Transport, Edmund “Clear the Land” Castro, has been accused of negligent behavior of a sexual nature. The news came out of Taiwan late last week and News Five has been able to receive verification. First, the incident… Castro was in Taiwan at the invitation of that government along […]
Rosewood might not be exactly on the center stage right now, but if you’re thinking that means that loggers and exporters have given up on the precious wood, you would be wrong. They’ve just gotten a little less brazen. And sneakier too, since reports reaching News Five indicate that a sizeable shipment of rosewood was […]
The scandal at the Social Investment Fund can potentially give Belize a bad rap among international lending agencies such as the World Bank and Caribbean Development Bank that provide funding for SIF projects. Four staff members were fired and the Executive Director had to resign when it came to light that SIF was not after […]
The Public Accounts Committee, sans Opposition participation, held a meeting in Belmopan on Monday. Because of the volume of news on Monday, we held back that story for today. As was promised, the session was open to the public, and there was quite a turnout from the public sector, as well as some unexpected invited […]
Last week, News Five was in rural Orange Walk where communities on the banks of the Rio Hondo were experiencing signs of imminent flooding. In San Antonio, just twenty minutes out of Orange Walk Town, the road was already under two feet of water in some spots and rising. The rains continued to fall late […]
Complaints of the excessive use of force by officers of the Belize Police Department are regularly aired in our newscasts. Tonight, there is another allegation to add to the growing list. Kadeesh Bernard and his mother came to our studios complaining that sometime around ten p.m. on Saturday, Bernard and a group of friends were […]
Tonight, there is much more information coming out of the immigration scandal which resulted in the immediate firing of Minister of State Elvin Penner last Thursday. The catalyst for the termination seems to be the issuance of a Belizean passport to South Korean national Kim Won-Hong. That passport was processed with the speed of lightning […]
At midnight on the twentieth September, a flag raising ceremony was held at Belize’s City’s Memorial Park to usher in Independence Day. Thereafter the formal Independence Day festivities moved to Belmopan with the traditional pomp and ceremony befitting the thirty-second anniversary of independence. The Prime Minister gave a glowing report of the state of the […]
A highlight in the Prime Minister’s Independence Speech relates to a landmark case in the Supreme Court for which a decision is pending. It is the case of Caleb Orosco versus the Government of Belize in which the executive director of the United Belize Advocacy Movement, UNIBAM, is challenging Section Fifty-three of the Criminal Code. […]
For the Leader of the Opposition, Francis Fonseca, the government is reeling from one scandal to the other. Fonseca also called for less confrontation and more dialogue, less arrogance and more humility and less personal politics and more problem solving. But one of the opposition’s biggest beef was the issue of the Public Accounts Committee, […]
In Belmopan, the official ceremonies concluded around midday; the government and the leader of the opposition had different versions on the state of the nation. In Belize City, the formal ceremony was not as heated and Mayor Darrell Bradley delivered the formal Independence Day address at Memorial Park. A uniformed parade drew thousands of spectators […]
There was another incident in the west which fortunately ended without casualties. Nancy Marin of NM Productions, a location management company out of San Ignacio, booked a river tour at Actun Tunichil Muknal in Teakettle for an investor scouting group from Russia. The group of eight Russians and one German had a series of meetings […]
In the west, the Independence Day activities were not without its own share of controversy. In San Jose Succotz, the installation of Miss Independence is a big affair. But this year, it had a twist. The story is that Yancy Bautista was duly elected as Miss Independence, but Bautista did not want to wear the […]
On Thursday, Minister of State with Responsibility for Immigration, Elvin Penner, was fired for his alleged involvement in a scandal at that department. News Five has confirmed that the termination of Penner is related to the nationality certificate and a passport which was processed and issued to South Korean national. That person has been identified […]
The former Executive Director of the Social Investment Fund, Daniel Cano, came forward on Thursday to speak about a one week old scandal of corruption that has rocked the SIF. Cano was required to resign and four others were fired following claims of extortion by contractor, Kenard Smart. On Tuesday, the Corozal-based contractor, who has […]
Kenard Smart’s relationship with the Social Investment Fund, prior to allegations of financial misconduct, has been a rather shaky affair. In January 2011, there was controversy surrounding a contract awarded to him for the construction of the Gulisi School in Dangriga. Despite that conflict, Smart would go on to secure additional contracts from SIF for […]
Of the four employees that were terminated from SIF on Tuesday, public relations officer Mike Hernandez says that the check he received from Kenard Smart, in the sum of five hundred dollars, was a gift for the cordial relationship the organization shared with the contractor during the course of the year. Admittedly, since SIF has […]
When News Five caught up with the Leader of the Opposition Francis Fonseca on Thursday at National Service Day activities, we also got an update from him in respect of the Public Accounts Committee. The chairman of the PAC is Julius Espat, who is also the Deputy Party Leader of the P.U.P. Espat says he […]
The iconic Ramon’s Village Resort in San Pedro was destroyed by a massive fire on the night of August twenty-seventh. The inferno gutted a total of thirty-two rooms, leaving in its wake millions of dollars in damages. It has been several weeks since that hellish experience which left dozens of international guests displaced. An urgent […]
Today, students of schools in every district got a jumpstart on Independence Day festivities, with displays of patriotism and pride in full effect. The students’ parade and rallies to bring in independence have become a tradition, a colorful and vibrant one. Today Mike Rudon was in San Ignacio where students showed their colors for the […]
It is the eve of Belize’s independence. At midnight tonight the symbolic raising of the Belizean flag countrywide will usher in the thirty-second birthday of our young nation. There will be fireworks and jubilation and celebration aplenty, in every corner of the jewel. And tonight, we go back to our archives and pull out footage […]
Elvin Penner is no longer a Minister of State in the current administration. That’s because he was required to resign with immediate effect from that post by Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Wednesday evening following a meeting at the P.M.’s office at the Whitfield Tower on Coney Drive, Belize City. Penner was appointed Minister of […]
And now to the facts of the story…why was Ministry of State so summarily and brutally dismissed? Using the trail of breadcrumbs to the Immigration Department so thoughtfully provided by the Prime Minister, News Five did some digging today. Although nobody was providing any official information, we were able to get some confirmation. To start […]
Ironically, this isn’t the first time Penner has been accused of being involved in the fast-tracking of documents. In 2012, just before general elections, he came under fire when the Ministry of Immigration engaged in an unprecedented mass-nationalization of immigrants. Nobody on the government side bothered to hide the fact that it was purely a […]
The scandal involving the Dangriga Municipal Market and employees of the Social Investment Fund continues to unravel. This afternoon, former executive director Daniel Cano faced the music and held a press conference to clear up a number of allegations made against him. Cano was relieved of his duties on Tuesday in the wake of the […]
