And while Perriot is keeping the union's options open, today members from both sides of the House presented requiems for the union's now deceased dream of controlling the company they helped to build.
Mark Espat,
"This government, we are to believe, having been able to raise an estimated $2 billion plus in debt in the last six years is suddenly unable to raise US $40 million to facilitate ownership of Belizeans, of the management and staff of BTL, so that this 37% could remain in the hands of Belizeans? It can extend the deadlines for ICC to pay for almost a year but the government is helpless when it stumbles upon an opportunity to help Belizeans. I stand with the working Belizeans and the private sector entities that deserve telecommunications service at the lowest possible rate. I stand with all those Belizeans who have owned shares in BTL or who aspire to own shares in this truly Belizean enterprise. That is your right in a just and equitable Belizean economy, a right that this government has failed to protect by this resolution. I stand strongly opposed to this resolution."
Dean Barrow,
"They put up a masterly struggle, their jobs were on the line, limbs were on the line in their confrontation with the police by way of their just
cause. I know, having been close to them, how they felt harried and hounded and persecuted when Special Branch was trailing them. I know how Christine and Paul Perriot suffered in terms of their family because they had to be sleeping down in Belize City in order to dodge rather than going home in Ladyville where their children were. I know Mark Usher when he again had to be changing residence. I know how Dale Trujeque and Mr. Gentle and Mr. Butler, who fainted when he was in police custody, felt. I know what they are going through even now as notwithstanding their knowledge of what it is that government is doing, and their knowledge that the new owner, the new virtual owner of this company, is going to E-com. They are prepared to continue their fight on the legal front putting once again their jobs at risk. This is the sort of example that inspires the Belizean nation. This is the sort of example that inspires us on this side. All power to those BTL employees."
No financing structure nor per share price for the 20% was disclosed today.
