! !BELIZE !No. 2/1/13 ! SENATE th Wednesday, 9 !December 2015 10:08 !A.M. Pursuant to the direction of Mr. President, in writing, dated 4th December 2015, the Senate met in the National Assembly Chamber in Belmopan on Wednesday, 9th !December 2015, at 10:08 A.M. ***-***! ! Members Present: Senator, the Honourable Lee Mark Chang – President Senator, the Honourable Godwin Hulse – Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources and Immigration Senator, the Honourable Dr. Carla Barnett – Vice-President Senator, the Honourable Francine Burns Senator, the Honourable Macario Coy Sr. Senator, the Honourable Stephen Duncan Senator, the Honourable Aldo Salazar Senator, the Honourable Lisa Shoman Senator, the Honourable Anthony Sylvestre Jr. Senator, the Honourable Patrick Andrews Senator, the Honourable Markhelm Lizarraga !Senator, the Honourable Rev. Ashley Rocke Member! Absent: Senator appointed for the National Trade Union Congress and the Civil !Society Steering Committee ! !MR. PRESIDENT in the Chair. PRAYERS! read by Mr. President. ! ANNOUNCEMENT BY! THE PRESIDENT MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, by letter dated 4th December, 2015, Cabinet’s! recommendation has been signified to the following: 1. General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation ! (2015/2016) (No.4) Bill, 2015; 2. The OPEC Fund for International Development US $12,000,000 – Reconstruction of the Hummingbird Highway Project Loan Motion, 2015; !2! ! ! 3. Inter-American Development Bank – Sustainable Tourism ! Program II US$15,000,000 Loan Motion, 2015. ! ! BILL BROUGHT FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources and Immigration): Mr. President, I rise to take charge of the General Revenue Supplementary Appropriation (2015/2016) (No.4) Bill, !2015. Mr. President, in accordance with Standing Order No. 49 (1), I move that !the Bill be taken through all its stages forthwith. MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, the question is that the Bill be taken through all its stages! forthwith. All those in favour, kindly say aye; those against, kindly say no. I think the ayes have it. ! ! ! PAPER SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources and Immigration): Mr. President, I rise to lay on the Table Sessional Paper 1/1/13 - Supplementary Appropriation (No.4) Schedule for Fiscal Year 2015/2016.! MR. PRESIDENT: Honourable Members, that paper is ordered to lie on the Table.! ! STATEMENT BY! MINISTER SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources and Immigration): Mr. President, Senators, I rise to make a statement with respect to a statement that was made on Friday, December 4, on the motion for the adjournment by the Representative for Toledo East in the House of Representatives, Honourable Mike Espat. During the statement, the Honourable Representative alleged that he had in his possession 14 nationality certificates which were part of a program initiated in the Immigration Department to effect and extract from poor residents of the villages of Bella Vista and Trio, who were duped by immigration officials. He further alleged that these 14 persons paid a thousand dollars to the immigration officials. He further stated that it was confirmed that Mrs. Maria Marin and Mrs. Ana Alpuche as well as Mr. Eden Martinez and the Chairman of the village of Bella Vista met with the people as part of this scam. Mr. !President, I will stop there. In this process of alleging and insinuating wrongdoing on the part of officials, he left no doubt in the minds of listeners that Mrs. Maria Marin, the Deputy Director, was presiding over a very corrupt department and even insinuated that she may have knowledge of this. In a very, what we consider venomous, and !knowledgeable tone of voice, he called for an investigation into this activity. !3! ! SENATOR L. SHOMAN: On a point of order, Mr. President, the Standing Orders say that members of the Senate may not impute any motives to members of the National Assembly. I think I would believe that the Leader of Government Business would like to withdraw that imputation of a venomous tone. That is not !parliamentary language, Mr. President. ! MR. PRESIDENT: Continue, Minister. SENATOR G. HULSE (Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources and Immigration): Mr. President, to say the least, I was stunned by this revelation, by the exactness of his revelation, the confidence with which he exposed this information and the situation and confidence he placed in his street source. Mr. President, the facts of the case are as follows. On Thursday, October 29, 2015, I was informed, as then Minister responsible for Immigration, by the Chairman of Bella Vista village that some 12 persons had paid for and received nationalities certificates from an operative who claimed to be an Immigration official. On Friday, October 30, 2015, the Chairman brought a copy of one of the certificates to the offices of the Department of Immigration. I convened a meeting with the Director and the CEO, who both, like myself, immediately recognized this document to be a fake. Everything was wrong; the paper, the printing, no seal, a signature that bear no close resemblance to any Immigration Minister present or past, no oath on the certificate. But it was obviously important that we find a way to apprehend the scam artist. So Mrs. Marin and I travelled to Bella Vista on Sunday, 31st October, to meet with these people for the purpose of: (1) checking on their legal status; (2) finding out exactly what occurred and how it was done; and (3) to get an exact idea of the !person or persons with whom they were involved. Present at that meeting was the Chairman of the village, a police officer, the Director of Immigration, myself and the Standard Bearer for Toledo East at the time and candidate, Mr. Eden Martinez. One by one the Director interviewed each of the 12 persons and checked on their legal status in the country and their preparedness to be witnesses in this case. While there, we learnt that another 10 certificates were being prepared for additional persons to be delivered on the following Monday. The persons were to travel to Belize City on Tuesday morning for a rendezvous with the operatives on Tuesday at 8:00 o’clock and to meet at a pre-arranged location. All the relevant personnel at the highest level of the security forces were informed, and !arrangements were made to nab these persons in the act. Mr. President, this was done and at 8:00 A.M. on Friday morning two persons were arrested. And they were subsequently charged and released on bail. Since it is public knowledge, both persons, the names are Mark Antonio Rosales and Marcos Basto, a former BDF Officer. The information is currently with the !DPP’s Office for prosecution. Mr. President, these are the facts of the case. At no time was there any evidence, allegation, or assertion that anyone at the Immigration Department was involved. Therefore, any suggestion of wrongdoing or impropriety on the part of the Acting Director, Mrs. Marin, is not only wrong, false, and malicious and deserves the unequivocal and stern denouncement of the statements made by the Honourable gentleman, who abused his parliamentary privilege by calling the !names of persons not present or capable of defending themselves in this forum. I call on him for an immediate and public apology to Mrs. Marin and Mrs. Alpuche who was not involved at all and others whose names were called. It is the !4! ! least he can do since he knows that these persons are defenseless against his utterances in these Chambers. But his words cast a shadow over the reputation of these persons across this nation and, indeed, across the world. And this is a terrible injustice to foist on any individual. I demand from him an apology on behalf of Mrs. Marin and Mrs. Alpuche, two of the hardest working and impeccable !individuals at the Immigration Department. Mr. President, Immigration has been the whipping boy of many and, indeed, many critics and also well-meaning Belizeans. And, indeed, over the years some persons procured nationality and passport who did not meet the legal requirements by engaging in deals with persons inside and outside of the department. Indeed, in the past this was facilitated for hundreds of persons by what could only been deemed ministerial decree, when instructions in the past and directives were issued to the Director to prepare nationality certificates for persons, waiving all legal !requirements, including security checks and fees. ! ! The process when I became Minister of Immigration was still a very loose one to obtain nationality and the passport. The penalties for abuses were very low and the possibility of tracking the wrongdoers was difficult. Two years ago, Mr. President, in January of 2014, in this very Chamber, the law was amended and strengthened and the mechanisms improved to ensure not only transparency in the process but also accuracy as best as possible. The new law and process decoupled and, I repeat, decoupled the department and the Minister from a direct symbiotic relationship whereby the Minister could previously instruct the Director to prepare certificates for his or her signature. Today, files are prepared for nationality and go to a Nationality Committee made up of Government officials and social partners. My Honourable colleague, Senator Francine Burns, representing the AG’s Ministry sat on that committee. Government officials and social partners review these files, and the names of persons who apply must be published for a three-week period prior to the scrutiny by the committee. This is to give the public some time to comment. It’s only after the committee has reviewed the file can the certificate be presented to the Minister for signature.