After being practically incommunicado with his boss, Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley, for more than two months, former Belize City deputy mayor, Eric Chang, finally set foot back in Belize sometime yesterday afternoon.

He reportedly arrived incognito and unannounced at the Philip Goldson International Airport yesterday on a flight from the US at around 2:00 p.m.

A long-awaited meeting is scheduled to take place between Councilor Chang and Mayor Bradley, partly concerning Chang’s alleged involvement in the conveyance of the infamous Belizean passport that was recently prepared for a South Korean fugitive who was behind bars in a Taiwanese jail – but more importantly, to address Chang’s extended leave of absence from the Council.

Eric Chang’s name first surfaced in connection with the fraudulent passport issuance to Won Hong Kim when the scandal was at its height in September of this year. In the wake of the accusations made against the councilor for his supposed role in the facilitation of the fraudulent Belizean passport to imprisoned Won Hong Kim, Mayor Bradley had told the media on several occasions that he would immediately seek an audience with the former Deputy Mayor upon his homecoming.

That was mainly because Chang had gone ‘under the radar’ without explanation, neglecting his duties as City Councilor in the process.

Today, the Mayor told Amandala that he hasn’t had an opportunity as yet to speak with the embattled councilor. Bradley said, “He came back yesterday. I haven’t had an opportunity to call him. I intend to call him as soon as I get through another appointment that I have right here. I will have a dialogue with him in terms of what has transpired and really [what is] his involvement in the City Council. As Mayor, it is my responsibility that every person in the City Council is performing 100%; persons with portfolios and persons without portfolios and I need to hear from him [to ensure] that he is serious about delivering on his commitment he was elected to do.”

Due to his extended and unauthorized stay in his country of origin, Chang had been stripped of both his title as Deputy Mayor and his Works and Zoning portfolio at the Belize City Council. The Mayor had confirmed that he had missed two City Council meetings; however, Chang has not technically vacated his seat as a City Councilor. According to the City Council bi-laws, a councilor must miss four successive meetings to vacate his or her seat.

In any event, Mayor Bradley told us that Chang will not be reinstated as a councilor with portfolio. The Mayor said, “We have no plans on doing that; we are very heavily involved in some of our infrastructure projects; I’m quite satisfied with the performance of Councilor Dean Samuels; he is moving forward with the Southside street rehabilitation projects. He wants to anxiously do those; he wants to get those moving as soon as possible. I think that there is still this question gaping here in relation to his [Chang’s] absence and in relation to his name called in the immigration fiasco, which he has to answer for.”

The Mayor also made it clear, though, that he would not speculate on Chang’s alleged involvement in the scandal because he (Bradley) is not a part of any of the authorities which are conducting the investigations. He pointed out that the relevant authorities are carrying out their investigations, and mentioned that he is not aware that Eric Chang is a person of interest in those investigations. He maintained that his responsibility as Mayor of Belize City is to ensure that he and his ten councilors are meeting their commitments as councilors of City Hall.

During a previous press conference held by GOB on October 10 of this year, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, at that time, had also gone on record to say that there was no proof to implicate Chang in any wrongdoing related to the “Penner passport scandal.”

Chang left Belize en route to Taiwan on Tuesday, September 3 of this year on an official visit with a delegation that included other government officials, including Mayor Darrell Bradley. He was slated to return to Belize three weeks later; however, in early October, Chang had told the Mayor that he needed to stay in Taiwan due to an illness in his family.

Thereafter, the communication links between the councilor and his boss seemed to have been somewhat severed since the Mayor had claimed that he had tried in vain to contact Chang while he (Chang) was away.

Apparently, the Mayor was not even personally informed of Chang’s arrival yesterday; as a matter of fact, we understand that the confirmation was initially made by one of Chang’s fellow councilors who spoke with him late Tuesday evening subsequent to his arrival. Since his return to Belize, Chang has remained virtually out of sight and has avoided all attempts by the media to contact him for comment.

Of note is that Chang’s cousin, former UDP Freetown division aspirant Lee Mark Chang, has recently stepped down as the standard bearer for that constituency. Chang reportedly mentioned that he is stepping away because he has to take care of his businesses, the Chon Saan restaurants.

According to Channel 7 News reports, Chang said that he will remain involved with the UDP in Freetown and will support whomever is chosen as his successor; however, he has no idea who that will be.

In 2012, Chang attempted to topple the current Leader of the Opposition and Freetown Area representative, Hon. Francis Fonseca, in general elections to become the first Chinese-Belizean to sit in the House of Representatives; however, he failed in that effort, losing by 150 votes.

On the other hand, the political career of his relative, current City Councilor Eric Chang – the first Taiwanese-Belizean candidate to hold political office in Belize – is now in doubt.