Saturday, June 21, 2025
Dear Editor:
I am a resident of Chan Pine Ridge Village in the Orange Walk District and a former village councillor (2016-2019). I write to your esteemed newspaper to ventilate a very serious concern that we all have as villagers of this small community, with the conviction that the relevant authorities will immediately act on this burgeoning problem.
In 2018, the then village council of Chan Pine Ridge was gifted a tractor (as pictured herein) by BSI/ASR. This donation came about after a formal written request by the then village council, whose chairman at the time was Cornelio Torres. Of importance, over the years, BSI/ASR has been a very generous partner of our village, and has been very instrumental and supportive in the development of our young community.
When BSI/ASR donated this machinery to our village, there was only one condition to such an invaluable gift: to repair the tractor, since it had very minor operational issues, and to make good use of it under impeccable management of the village council. The repairs were certainly minor, and were estimated to have cost a little over a thousand dollars. After the tractor was picked up at the BSI/ASR compound, the village council met to discuss the repairs of the equipment. It was then decided that the chairman, Mr. Torres, was to tow it to neighbouring Shipyard to a mechanic.
It took some weeks for the former chairman to report back to the council about the condition of the tractor; and he eventually shared that the tractor had been repaired, and that he had paid the bill. The tractor was then brought back to the village and was parked at the former chairman’s personal garage, which continued to be the case till this very day.
When questioned about the expenses for the repairs, Mr. Torres dismissed the concern. Additionally, when asked about ownership documents for the tractor, Mr. Torres shared that it had been put under his name; very much to our disagreement, since we believed that it ought not to be registered under anybody’s name, but rather under a collective unit such as “Chan Pine Ridge Village Council,” so as to display some level of transparency and continuity for future village councils to properly manage.
This grave concern and issue lingered until the expiration of the term of that specific village council (2016-2019), following which absolutely no steps were taken to address the matter of the tractor’s title being under the sole name of Mr. Torres. Mr. Torres got to serve another two terms as chairman, 2019-2022 and 2022-2025. In both new terms up to 2025, the tractor remained under his name and very much functional, even seen openly completing private jobs in the village.
To exacerbate this situation, a new PUP village council was endorsed/sworn-in this week on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, when it was expected by law that Mr. Torres, as the outgoing chairman, would hand over this invaluable piece of equipment to the new village council. Lo and behold, this was never the case, despite efforts of the new village council to recover the tractor before the handing-over ceremonies.
Mr. Torres has adamantly refused to hand over this machinery, which the entire village knows belongs to the residents of this community. The argument that Mr. Torres puts forth is that the tractor was repaired by him with personal funds, and that the title is under his name. Even though many will argue that, indeed, the tractor is legally his because of the nature of the title, we must not dismiss that the manner in which he arbitrarily put the title under his name is illegitimate, since he knew that the machinery was a gift to the people of Chan Pine Ridge, and not a gift to him. As per the repairs which he paid out of his personal finances, I am sure that the new village council can always refund him those monies.
As villagers, we call on the area representative, Hon. Kevin Bernard; the Minister of Local Government, Hon. Florencio Marin, Jr.; and his CEO, Valentine Shal, to address this matter right away. We are expecting that these figures in authority can caution the former chairman, Mr. Torres, and ensure that this asset is recovered at the earliest. With the rainy season on top of us, the tractor will definitely come in very useful for the cleaning of our village and its public areas. It is certainly not common at all for any village council to boast of such an asset, especially when it is given as a gift from the business community.
We remain very hopeful that this despicable act of sabotage is addressed immediately by those in authority, as it is not yet our intention to seek legal redress as villagers to repossess an asset that legally belongs to us, Chan Pine Ridgeños.
The estimated value of the tractor is around $30,000.00 Bz.
Image of tractor gifted by BSI/ASR to Chan Pine Ridgeños.
Concerned Chan Pine Ridge resident
(Name withheld by request)