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Posted By: Marty House Scraps - 02/13/13 02:11 PM
And while Vega was cool in his review of what's happening in the race for Deputy he got a little hot under the collar in the House when PUP Orange Walk South Representative Jose Mai brought up a big money transaction between the Ministry of Natural Resources and one of Vega's biggest supporters. Here's the allegation and the response:..

Hon. Abelardo Mai
"Mr. Speaker in my hand I have a letter, it is written on the letterhead; the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. It is dated the 28th June 2010 and is address to one Mr. Derrick Gillett of Orange Walk. It is signed by one Ms. Beverly Castillo; it says CEO at the time. It's a very short letter and it said here: Pursuant to the caption matter in which you are involve as interested party the Ministry of natural Resources as defendants in the matter offers you the sum of $148,000 to extinguish or withhold all proceedings against the government of Belize Ministry of Natural Resources this matter and for the return of the parcel 1817 block Consejo Road. Government would then allow the registration of the title to the said parcel of land returned to Mr. Silvio Correa."

"It goes on to apologized to inconveniences caused to Mr. Gillett. Mr. Speaker in context we have to understand and we have to know here. Everybody in Corozal and Orange Walk knows that this land never belong to Mr. Derrick Gillett. There was an attempt to take away the land from Mr. Silvio Correa that has invested more than $30,000 in the land. There was an attempt to try to take away the land. It ended up in court and as a result Mr. Speaker Mr. Derrick Gillett was offered $148,000 for not even investing a dollar on a piece of land - $148,000 of tax payers' money."

Hon. Gaspar Vega
"I am not going to tell him about his contraband beer. Mr. Speaker that case - I will give a complete synopsis of what happened with that land. It was just before 2008 under the rush of the PUP corruption they issued the land. The court was the one that decided that that was the land that was intended to be issued to one Mr. Correa, but that was not so because under the rush Mr. Correa got a tittle but with the wrong parcel number in the wrong area and that is how that land was still available because in the computer under the system it did not show that that land was issued. After it went to court it was the court that decided that the original intention was for that land but was for never issued to Mr. Correa. That is what occurred there representative of Orange Walk South. You are so disrespectful Mr. Mai, I have never been caught red handed by no police with a pick-up load of beer."

Vega's challenger Patrick Faber also took some heat from the opposition on his candidacy for Deputy. The Prime Minister has come out publicly against him - and when he still stood up to defend the side - that's when the Leader OF The Oppositions pounced on his sore spot:..

Hon. Francis Fonseca
"Get to work providing more resources to education and health."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"Mr. Speaker on a point of order, can the member stay to the motion on hand please, he is all the way all over the place. Can he focus on the super bond motion Mr. Speaker?"

Hon. Francis Fonseca
"Thank you Mr. Speaker. I Know that the member for Collet is still even at this last minute trying to win the support of his leader for his failed deputy leader. But it's too late my friend from politics. The leader has declared his support for the member for Orange Walk North."

Hon. Patrick Faber
"He is not of this party and should not meddle in that but since he is meddling in our affairs let me remind him that he too was once in a race and was rejected by his party to lead and after he was rejected Mr. Speaker they went down the line to everybody else except him and then he is last resort leader now. That's what he should worry about."

And while that's big man talk - UDP Representative for Mesopotamia Michael Finnegan downsized the dialogue with a reference that's definitely not for tender ears:..

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"My mind went to a member from the United States congress and he was referring to the President of the United States saying that the President got "cojones" if I may be allowed to use that word."

Speaker of the House
"You already used it."

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"It was used in the US Congress "balls." Mr. Speaker wont used that term; I will put it this way. Listening to the member from Belize Rural Central Mr. Speaker she have more nerves than ten bad teeth."

And, of course, with all those insults being hurled back and forth, it was inevitable that the present and previous prime Minister had to get into it as well. They did over the same point that we had at the top of the news: the late notice given of the debt restructuring motion:

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"You conceal the fact that in the name of the Belizean people you had borrow $10 million dollars from Taiwan which you then took and gave to Aschroft Belize Bank to pay down on the UHS debt as you did the very same thing with respect to the $10 million from Venezuela. You come and talk about transparency and lack of respect."

Hon. Said Musa
"On a point of order, I didn't want to engage in this debate but the Prime Minister is taking advantage of your liberality because he is talking about everything else except the motion before this house."

Speaker of the House
"Let me respond to you."

Hon. Said Musa
"He is also mounting inaccuracies and falsehoods in wrapping up of this motion because the $10 million from Taiwan was a grant. The $10 million from Venezuela was a grant and not a loan. Why lie to the Belizean people."

Speaker of the House
"You know that the mover of the motion as the Minister of Finance ends the debate. He has to respond to everybody - what everybody has said. It's only the nature of the house. That's the standing order member."

Hon. Said Musa
"I accept what you are saying, but I didn't hear anybody on this side talking about transparency. We were talking about respect."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"He gets up now. There is a man in police that they called Mr. Joe. He like to tell you that if you don't want show your backside then don't drop your pants. I would have hope that the ex-Prime Minister would have kept his scrofulous self to himself, but since he got up now let me make the point that when."

Hon. Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
"On a point of order; It shall be out of order to used offences or insulting language about either chamber of the legislature. Mr. Speaker, I consider that insulting and I want to bring it to your attention and a point of order."

Speaker of the House
"Proceed Mr. Prime Minister."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Do you know what scrofulous mean?"

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