The newly constituted Senate, with three new Opposition members, met this morning at the National Assembly in Belmopan. The major items on the agenda were the approval of three ambassadorial appointments, and, yet again, a US$5 million loan motion for concessionary financing from the state-owned Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China, Taiwan, to finance the construction of the Marion Jones Sports Complex.
The leader of government business, Senator Douglas Singh, signaled that earlier this month Cabinet, a body comprised solely of members of the ruling United Democratic Party, had already given its approval for the loan, which Belize would access under a bilateral program for economic development with Taiwan.
Senator Singh outlined the terms of the loan – duration: 20 years, grace period: 3 years, number of semiannual equal installments: 30, and interest: liber plus 1%, currently equating to about 4% per annum.
After Singh presented the details of the motion, the Senators debated it, but the issue was not whether the loan should be approved or not, but the fact that this was the third time matter of funding the facility was coming before the legislature.
Senator Godwin Hulse, after whose niece the facility is named, pointed out that the Government has missed the grants that have been supplied, the most recent being $2 million from Venezuela, and Marion Jones’s own money which, he said, never went into that stadium.
“We missed a Taiwanese proposal and we missed, clearly, a large Venezuela grant which could have gone into the complex,” monies that, he said, have instead gone into “the infamous UHS” – Universal Health Services.
“I don’t think people would have chosen sports over health, but would have chosen sports over a private health institution,” he added.
Hulse also pointed out that parliament has never been given a clear figure of what our national debt is, and there is need to be clear on that, so we know when we are making decisions that we have the wherewithal to pay.
Vice president of the Senate, Mrs. Deborah McMillan, expressed the hope that the matter of seeking money to complete development at the Marion Jones Sports Complex would finally be put to rest.
She agreed with Senator Hulse that this is the third time the financing for the project was being raised. The first was in the 2006/2007 budget speech, and then the second in the 2007/2008 budget speech.
She said that, like Opposition Senator Hector Silva, she is hoping they can now put the matter to rest.
It is difficult not to support the US$5 million loan motion, said McMillan, because she sees sports as an antidote to the continued rise in crime.
Senator for the church community, Henry Gordon, offered the support of church for the motion, and agreed that the facility would bring positive benefits for the youth. He said that he desires to see young Belizeans become better equipped, especially in track and field, as they compete regionally and internationally.
Eddie Webster, UDP Senator, said that the same thing that has happened with the Marion Jones Sports Complex, has also happened in his community – Dangriga. One point five million dollars were allotted for a sporting complex on the old Ministry of Works compound, but “when you get there, all you see is land clearing. Nothing has happened.” Same thing for the Carl Ramos Stadium – monies were allotted but nothing has happened on the ground. Webster said that he trusts the 5 million US dollars now being approved for the Marion Jones Sports Complex will be well spent on the youth of this nation.
Opposition Senator Eiden Salazar questioned, “Who will oversee the project?” He said that care should be taken that the facility meets international standards, as it is about time we stop hearing on the news that Belize has to play international and regional games in other countries because our facilities don’t meet the international standards required.
Senator for the trade unions, Paul Perriott, said that even as millions have been proposed for the Marion Jones facility, he knows that they were not put into the stadium, because he works right across the street from where the stadium is located.
Perriott’s desire is to ensure that a proper budget is in place, because he questions whether the BZ$10 million now being proposed is even enough to bring the project to completion.
While there was much debate over the US$5 million for Marion Jones Sports Complex, the motion saw unanimous support from all factions in the Senate.
The second important business addressed in today’s Senate sitting was the appointment of ambassadors for Belize to foreign states, as the appointment of ambassadors is among the constitutionally enshrined powers of the Senate. There were to have been four appointments, but one was withdrawn.
Belize’s Ambassador to the United States of Mexico will be Rosendo Antonio Urbina, Sr., Orange Walk Central standard-bearer for the UDP in the February 2008 elections. Rosendo “Chendo” Urbina was noted as a founder of Escuela Secundaria Mexico and the Corozal Junior College, as well as a former teacher and principal, and now a very successful businessman and owner of A & R Enterprises Ltd. with branches in Orange Walk, Belize City and the Corozal Free Zone.
Former Benque Viejo del Carmen mayor, Said Badi Guerra, the son of Pedro Guerra Mena (former UDP Cayo West area representative), former seminary student and former teacher at Mount Carmel, will be Belize’s resident ambassador to Cuba.
The motion for the appointment of Adalbert “Bert” Tucker as Belize’s non-resident ambassador to Nigeria and the African Union was withdrawn.
The final appointment was that for Audrey Joy Grant, described as a dedicated environmentalist, and a woman experienced in banking. Mrs. Grant will be Belize’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, the European Union, the European Commission, and the World Trade Organization.
During the course of today’s Senate proceedings, four new Senators were sworn in. They are UDP Government Senator, Anwar Barrow, son of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who is holding over for Senator Pulcheria Teul, and Opposition People’s United Party senators – Hector Silva, Sr., of Cayo; Corona Villafranco of Stann Creek; and Eiden Salazar of San Pedro, who replace Magali Marin, Rodwell Ferguson and Dr. David Hoy – a change that came along with the revamping of the PUP’s executive.
Note that the constitutional amendments introduced in the House on Friday, April 25, are still to be debated there, and as is normal procedure, they won’t go to the Senate until they are properly ventilated and vetted by that lower house of the National Assembly.