Yesterday, we showed you our interview with PUP’s Julius Espat, who said that in next Monday’s House Meeting, he was prepared to support the Government Maritime Areas Amendment Bill.
It’s on the checklist of priority objectives to complete before Belize’s goes to the ICJ to challenge Guatemala’s territorial claim. Espat explained that the electorate has spoken in last week Wednesday’s referendum, and that as a servant of the people, he must respect their wishes.
So, we wondered what his fellow PUP parliamentarians intended to do when this bill was tabled. The Opposition had a parliamentary caucus meeting to discuss just that today, and after a 2-hour session, Leader John Briceno took a few questions from the waiting press on the consensus they’ve reached. He said that his party will support the amendment, especially they were already pushing for it:
Hon. John Briceno - Leader of Opposition
"Well always before we have a house meeting and senate meeting, all parliamentarians meet to discuss the order of the day and to build a consensus what the party's position is going to be for the house meeting. So, that is what we just had this afternoon."
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Daniel Ortiz
"So it was focused on the proposed maritime areas act amendment right?"
Hon. John Briceno
"Well there are two bills that they're proposing. One is an amendment to the Maritime’s area act and also the income tax and procedure bill, where they are attempting to merge both the income tax and the GST departments as one. On the Maritimes area's amendment bill, I think it will go through all the stages on Monday, as you all know, the PUP has been very clear when we took out the people's declaration, where we said that one of the recommendations/demands that we're making is the amendment to the Maritimes area's act where we can claim the entire area that we can as afforded under international law. So we had that discussion and this afternoon and obviously then our parliamentarians are prepared to go and support that. Ironically, it is pretty much identical to the bill that Senator Courtenay presented in the senate just some time last year. I don't see us opposing to those amendments. It is the right thing that, it's not the PUP or the UDP that is going to the ICJ, it is Belize and I think that all of us - political parties, NGO's, citizens, we have a responsibility to be able to work together on this issue. It's not about scoring political points but it is about ensuring that we put our best face front that we could put the best case possible to ensure that we protect every single square centimetre of what rightfully belongs to Belize."
Reporter
"Are all PUP parliamentarians on the support of the withdrawal of the special agreement claim?"
Hon. John Briceno
"Well, we did not discuss that, I just informed them that I met with the claimants and with the legal advisor and the claimants, after we had a discussion said that they leave that up to me as the leader of the party to make that decision and as the leader I felt that is in the interest of everyone to be able to drop that claim. The Belizean people have spoken and we must at all times, respect the will of the Belizean people."
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