And even though he has helped Duck Run 3 with a new hurricane shelter, there are some villagers who aren't too happy with him. Back in May we took you to the village where residents of a community said that they were being forced off the land because the area rep and the chairman want to use it for a cemetery.
They claimed they've been on the land for well over a decade, and they tried to apply for ownership back in 2019. They also told us that they were living with anxiety, because police trucks and bulldozers often traverse their streets.
But Habet had told us before that those claims weren't true, and today he reiterated that. He said they haven't been there as long as they say they were, but they're already there, so he's suggesting to the Ministry of Natural Resources to let them keep their land - but only the land they're currently occupying.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"There's more than one story and as I had mentioned in a previous interview, they haven't been squatting there for more than five to six years because I can recall personally going with the chairman and the former chairman to see then Commissioner of Lands, Mr Vallejos, so that was 2020. So 2020 to 2024 can't be 10, 17, 18 years. I saw part of the videos that you put out and I think there is a misconception because they showed that they had some chickens growing, they had some 
cattle, they had some coconut trees, well, for those who know agriculture, I'm a livestock specialist, so a chicken will gain four pounds in six weeks so you could see them big but they're six, eight weeks old that are ready to be able to be consumed. Cattle, in one and a half, two years, will weight 900 to 1,000 pounds. Coconuts, in three years they're bearing fruit, a dwarf coconut tree will bear in three years of age so that that they have been there for longer periods than that because you see the agricultural produce is not so. From my perspective, the lady who is there that wants to make noise, that starts videoing before you even reach close is wrong. She's squatting on a parcel of land that's public land that was designated for a cemetery. She has been there, she has been left there for five years so I believe what the government can do and we have recommended this to the minister is to survey her parcel, give her her parcel with her house and ni modos, she's there already. But she can't be bringing other people to squat, there's only one Minister of Lands, it's Mr Cordel Hyde, nobody says that Rosa Letkeman is the second Minister of Lands, she can't be doing that, that's not allowed in our country. You can't do it, I can't do it, so it think we have to follow the rules."
Courtney Menzies:
"So the cemetery will still be built in that general area?"
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"Yes, if there is more than one house then I think the Minister will respect that, they'll get their parcel of land and the rest will be afforded for the cemetery. And then the people who have already paid their $2,000 plus their $550 for their parcel to be surveyed, they deserve to have it so when she was complaining that she said that I took a bulldozer to tear down her house, I was taking the bulldozer to open the roads for the people who already got their documents from Minister Hyde so that they can start occupying their land but she starts with a video and you can't even get close so people were asking why I haven't been there or confronted her, I won't confront her, it doesn't make sense."
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