Last night, 7News told you about the Pickwood/Castillo land dispute which attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd said former CEO of the Natural Resources Ministry, Beverly Castillo, used her influence to take away a piece of land from Bernadette Pickwood and give it to her mother and son. Well, the Commissioner of Lands, Wilbert Vallejos, says that this is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
Vallejos told us by phone tonight that the major charges that Matura-Shepherd brought are misguided. First, Beverly Castillo, as the CEO, does not have the power to cancel a lease or grant any lease to applicants; that was in relation to the allegation from Matura-Shepherd made saying that Castillo personally gave the directive to cancel the lease and transfer it to her family. Next, he said that Lands Department stands by their information that Bernadette Pickwood owes rent to the Government, and therefore breached her lease conditions.
Next, he claims that the notice of intent to cancel the lease was sent out on October 1, 2013, and there was not need to Gazette this nor the actual cancellation of the Lease, which happened on November 1, because of the nature of the lease that Bernadette Pickwood had.
In relation to the very short time period between when the Pickwood lease was cancelled and when the Castillo family was granted access to the land, he claims that this has been grossly exaggerated by Matura-Shepherd He said that the cancellation happened on November 1, and the Castillo's were granted a lease to the land on November 6, 5 days later, and not in 1 hour like Matura-Shepherd claimed.
And finally, he told us that there is absolutely no politics involved in the Castillo family acquiring a lease to the land. He said that it was a totally random process, and yes, they did express interest in it, but the decision was made by the officials who surveyed lands in the Belama after careful consideration. He says that there was absolutely no irregularities in the way the Lands Department re-acquired after the Pickwoods breeched their lease conditions.
Email
Print