3 days ago
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The United Democratic Party held a press conference this morning at its headquarters in Belize City, where party representatives spent nearly ninety minutes outlining concerns over national issues and criticizing the performance of the administration led by Prime Minister John Briceño. Leading the charge was Opposition Leader Tracy Panton, who addressed a range of topics including crime, fuel prices, the rising cost of living, corruption, and infrastructure development. Panton provided the opposition’s perspective on what she described as mounting challenges facing Belizeans.
Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition: “There has been mayhem. It’s the best that I can describe it. Young lives being taken away far too soon. And those who have been kidnapped, who are presumably dead, but whom families continue to search for with the hope of good news. We’re living in unprecedented times. The uncertainties that Belizeans face on a day-to-day basis reminds me of when we found ourselves exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Food prices and basic services continue to rise daily. Utility rates, electricity and water are ever increasing. Recently, the PUC agreed that the increases for electricity would be fluctuating month by month. We have no idea what our electricity consumption will cost our families. And here’s the catch. It is the consumers who get to carry the heaviest part of the burden. Belizeans are being squeezed from every direction. Land taxes have increased. Trade license fees have increased. Garbage collection fees are now being imposed on some municipalities without any consultation. As I said before, and as I end my intervention, these are not frivolous matters. They’re serious. And signals a perfect storm, a national crisis. If left to fester, it will tear at the very fabric of our society.”
The discussion then shifted to a developing controversy surrounding land in Caye Caulker. UDP Senator Gabriel Zetina alleged that Area Representative Andre Perez was attempting to conceal government considerations regarding the potential sale of the land where the police station currently sits. Zetina further claimed that members of the Caye Caulker Village Council had been unable to get responses from both Perez and Minister of Home Affairs Oscar Mira despite repeated attempts at contact.
Gabriel Zetina, UDP Senator: “Now, there is deflection. To me that is mind-boggling. Especially, especially since the residents were promised that they would have gotten basically a new building for the police department substation there. Policing in the island is very important as one of the top tourist destinations. Secondly, it wasn’t their land to start with. They transferred it under the pretext that their police substation would have gotten rehabilitated. How can you go about now negotiating? Mind you, the project was halted. Parcel 815. This was donated, and this is facts, so that a police station could be built there, back in the day plain and simple. The government asked for it to be transferred so that they could be able to acquire funding. Fair enough. Now they turn around and try to sell it. Stopping the project. That’s a fact. With zero consultation. Shouldn’t you consult or at least let the local leaders, the people know before you stop the project ? The people of Caye Caulker, if they would have not stand up, rise together, took to the street protest, you better believe the PUP would have sold that land.”
Additional concerns were raised by party members Godwin Haylock and Annmarie Williams. Haylock warned that proposed increases in bus fares could place further strain on commuters already grappling with rising living costs, while Williams called for a comprehensive study into the side effects of contraceptives on Belizean women, arguing that more localized data is needed.
Godwin Haylock, Queen Square Area Representative:“Brace yourself my fellow Belizeans because first it was an increase in the price of fuel. But by Friday there will be increase in bus fares leaving your pockets empty. This PUP government, it is obvious they have no solution to the fuel crisis. But more than that, they have no mercy on the working class of the people who have to get on that bus every single day and go back and forth to work. It is anticipated that the cost of bus fares from Belize City to Belmopan will increase by a whopping $2. Man, this government needs lashing. Let’s take for example the public servant starting his or her career in Belmopan, making less than $1300 monthly. That’s just over $300 per week as your take home salary. They will have to pay $40 to $50 per week on bus fares and that’s one way. If they go and come, that’s nearly $100 per week as their bus fares. And that’s depending on the class of service you choose. By the time the week is done, he or she will be lucky if they have more than $100 to take home from their salary.”
Ann Marie Williams: “Let this sink in. For more than 50 years, you could have safely and responsibly accessed birth control over the counter in Belize. Requiring a prescription for birth control imposes is an unjust and unnecessary financial burden on women and adolescent. Just imagine you have to go to a doctor, consultation $75 to get a packet of pills that would cost maybe $10 at the base level. Now you have been using this bill for two, three, four, five, umpteen years and you suddenly have to do this. Think about this approach. It’s not only impractical, it’s inequitable, particularly for the working poor, for women who live in the rural areas and women who live in underserved communities, where access to medical practitioners is already limited. The broader implications, though, are deeply troubling. Restricted access to birth control risk arise in unintended pregnancies, which could lead to higher incidents of clandestine and unsafe abortions, as well as maternal deaths.”
Meanwhile, UDP Lead Senator Patrick Faber took aim at the government’s handling of the health sector, alleging what he described as a “racket” within the system.
Patrick Faber, UDP Senator: “I don’t know how it doesn’t dawn on Belizeans and much of what I want to say this morning is a calling to arms of our Belizean people about the racket that the People’s United Party continues to run on a daily basis in this country and many of us sit down like nothing, nothing, nothing at all is happening. There’s a very simple reason why women have to go and get a prescription for birth control now. Because they want to force you into the very same NHI system, they want you to be able to go to that doctor and that doctor will now bill you in the NHI system. And they will continue to laugh all the way to the bank. When I said to them first in the House of Representatives and now in the Senate that NHI is a fattening of their cronies, that who stand to benefit in NHI are those private providers? They said, no, no, no, we’re engaging all of the public facilities as well. I feel that the reason why our Belizean people are soft because you’re soft on the PUP. You’re soft on the PUP. Maybe because you say, you know they have a little thing happening here. Well, let me tell you something. Every single thing that the People’s United Party does, even if it appears to be good, there is a hustle.”
The press conference concluded around midday, with UDP officials maintaining that greater accountability and transparency are needed across multiple sectors.
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