But after 14 hours in the House, Faber didn't lose any of that fire, especially when the debate over Dr Marvin Manzanero's DHS position began.
As we have reported, in a move at restructuring, that post will be abolished and replaced with two new positions: a Director of Public Health and Wellness as well as a Director of Hospital Services.
Faber's colleague Shyne Barrow took the floor first. He said that those on the opposition side were concerned over how the DHS is being treated since he was the captain that helped Belize maneuver through the first 8 months of the pandemic.
But the Minister of the Public Service, Henry Charles Usher responded like his PM, saying that it isn't about the man but about the position. He claimed that it is too much responsibility for one person to handle. Here's how he put it.
Hon. Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service
"This bill and the other amendments to the various legislations have nothing to do with one individual. It has everything to do with making the services of the ministry of health and wellness more efficient and effective in serving the Belizean people. The minister and health and his team approach the ministry of the public service and they have been working in conjunction with the job classification and compensation unit of the ministry and they recognize that there was an organizational structure that needed to be amended where one individual, the director of health service was responsible for signing a slue of documents having to do with hospitals, pharmaceuticals, medical professionals, infectious disease, international medical agencies etc. It was found that this created massive back logs and bottlenecks. If the DHS didn't sign or approve, there could be no forward movement. That is not an efficient way to run this most vital ministry. So, now with these amendments you are creating 2 posts: director of health and wellness, director of hospital services, allied health with responsibilities as outline by the minister of health and wellness. Again, it has nothing to do with one individual. Everything to do with providing better service to the people of Belize."
"In reference in response to the member from Mesopotamia that said that the DHS had two deputies, but yes member, the legislation says it's the DHS that has to sign, not his deputies. So that is why you had the bottleneck, that is why you had the back log, because everything had to go through this one individual office. Has nothing to do with the work done by Dr. Manzanero which has been commendable work, but it just created too much back log in the system where you saw things being held back."
But the leader of the opposition wasn't having it, and he rose to condemn the PUP for their treatment of Dr Manzanero. He questioned what he characterized as government's vendetta against the DHS and noted that it couldn't be politics since Manza has always been objective in his duties. Here is a snippet of his comments close to the midnight hour.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Leader of the Opposition
"I have never such nonsense in my life. The minister of the public service just told us that the burden is so tremendous and the office of the director of health services that he needs help, this position alone has to sign documents. Where is he Madam Speaker? He thinks that the Belizean people don't know that for the last couple of months you have locked out the DHS out of his job. If this position is so important to assisting in the fight against covid and the health crisis that we are going through, why have you punished Dr. Manza in the way that you have done? You all think that people are blind. Do you? You think people don't know in this country that you have some kind of vendetta against Dr. Manza? The prime minister in his own words say the man is not important. In his own words he blamed Dr. Manza for failing the nation and for causing the covid deaths. I don't know what world you live; everybody can tell that you are not being honest and that is a part of the problem here."
"I listen as the minister spoke highly about Dr. Manza, so when they ask the prime minister so Dr. Manza will received on these directorships? Prime Minister plays like he doesn't know anything and washes his hands of the situation. If what he said is true, then I expect the minister of health to get up promptly when he closes this debate so say that Dr. Manza will be one of those directors, but he is not going to do that, because according to your prime minister, I don't know if you said it, in fact you have this ability to be rude and curt the media. That's what I gathered. The prime minister might be a little bit better, but he dodges the media as well, but he said that he blames Manza. This government has a very big vendetta against Marvin Manzanero. Take your personal, petty politics out of this ministry. Everybody can see that. Dr. Manzanero is no UDP either. I don't know what is his crime, because he is not a flag bearing member of the UDP. In fact, he and the UDP had come to daggers drawn. It was when the cabinet has said that the ministry of health must release the names of those people who were positive to the authorities the BDF and so on and Dr. Manza said over my dead body to the UDP administration, to the prime minister and his special grouping Dr. Manza says no and threatened to resign. That was how Dr. Manza won the hearts of the Belizean people, because he proves that he would not be manipulated by the politicians and maybe that's the bigger issue that they have."
