Joshua Perdomo - the Cabinet Secretary Carlos Perdomo's son has become a nationally known name - and for all the wrong reasons. As has been widely reported, the Cabinet Secretary's son had his 40 thousand dollar debt with the government written off by Parliament.
The write off motion passed by the house said that he could not be found - and it had Cabinet's approval.
Today, senior Cabinet member Wilfred Elrington defended the write-off, and a recent write-off of land tax debts - he said he wishes there would be more like that:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Let me tell what I think of the Joshua Perdomo thing and I'm glad you asked it and this is a matter I feel so passionate about. I think if there is one black mark against our country it is the fact that our children should go through so many hoops to get an education. This country needs educated people. I find it so disappointing that people make such and hue and cry over the writeoff of a $40.000 that was spent on education for anybody. I think people should be able to go for further education for free at government expense, because when they finish they come right back here and work and with respect to government writeoff, maybe I am bias, because I owe taxes. But the truth is that we are not earning enough to be able to pay our taxes and everything on time and it is not the poor people who really get the best out of the country, its the rich people. Poor man has a little chance to writeoff a few dollars on taxes and I must say."
Reporter
"He is not a poor man and he did not come back."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I will give Mr. Barrow his credit. This is neither the first, second or third writeoff that he has done. You know how many people had homes that they couldn't pay off and he wrote it off."
Reporter
"We have young capable forensic specialist who took a $40,000 loan and never returned to the country to give back to Belize. He is in Texas somewhere applying his knowledge where it is profitable. Where do we stand as tax payers in light of that?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"Where do you think he sent his remittances? Half my brothers and sisters are in the United States. You know how many investments they have here? They sent every cent that have back. You have to be more broad minded. Here is a person who is in the United States who would obviously doing better, hopefully and will have resources to send back to invest. You don't see it that way?"
We note that Ellington's stout defense of the Perdomo write off did not even two the official explanation - that the Perdomo debt was statute barred and could not be collected.
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