Email

Print

They were there to send a message to the Prime Minister and as they marched around the building and on the sidewalk in front we got a good sense of the message they were trying to send today, specifically to the Prime Minister. Jomarie Lanza spoke to their interim vice president and here's what she learned.

Though few in number, the Association Of Beneficiaries And Retired Public Officers showed up at the Prime Minister's Belize City office this morning to protest against the Public Service Workers Trust in hopes of getting it dissolved. Their Interim Vice President explained.

Lizbeth Castillo, Interim VP, ABRPO
"We are out here simply because during the years 1995 to 1997 normally when you work with government you get what we call a yearly increment which is an increase In salary we did not get those increases for those years, this year will make 30 years we have been waiting for those monies. So we have really been disenfranchised because all of us out here have retired and when you retire your treaty and pension is calculated at your last salary point so none of us because we did not get that money were at our last salary point correct salary point so all these. Years we have been waiting to get this money. But just going forward many years about 2 plus years ago the prime minister promised us that he would assist us to dissolve the trust, there's a trust that was set up by the government at that time, monies were invested in BTL so there's a whole lot of BTL shares that have been earning dividends over the years so there is money, we have monies there for the beneficiaries and we want to have it dissolved, we are all people down in age in our late 60s, 70s, 80s, depending on the time you retired so we are saying that people our age suffer from a lot of things one of them with age comes different illnesses we never expect a lot of expenses because medical care is expensive and so we have been clamouring for our membership to get these monies."

Castillo says that they estimate there are over 9000 beneficiaries, but they are quickly dying out as they age. She says that they continue to remain uncertain as to whether the Prime Minister will keep his word as he had promised to help them but they have not met with him since last year.

Lizbeth Castillo, Interim VP, ABRPO
"The first time we met with them was last September. The last meeting we had was in November of last year. We were supposed to have a meeting in December and we are way down in February now and we are still waiting for another meeting. We have had very cordial meetings and promises have been made on both sides and I can assure the public, the government and everyone else that the promises our organisation makes we will keep those promises and the promises we make is to assist the government as much as possible to ensure that our beneficiaries get what is due to them."

"And so we are saying that we have to keep this going and get the public more aware, keep our group going because our beneficiaries keep clamouring for action and yes it would be nice if I had a thousand of them but the ten of us will make a difference."

Barbra Elrington, Retired Teacher, ABPRO
"There's a trust of monies that are owed to us and the trust is not being handled well. The beneficiaries of the trust are dying because many of us are retired now, we served faithfully we really kept the government going in all our different spheres of operations and hence we have a structure that in fact those younger ones coming after us can work with however the trust is not working for us and we have tried to get the intervention of the courts and they have failed us, we have tried to get the intervention of the government and they have failed us so I just feel obligated to be out here standing up with the beneficiaries of this trust to make our voices heard before it is too late, we are all dying I am 75 years old and we have been doing this for over 30 years and we have not gotten benefits so hopefully something will happen before all of us die."

Undeterred, the group says they plan to protest weekly. They also protested in Belmopan yesterday.