And the PSU president also spoke on another issue that is of concern to his own members. There were reports that the union was considering hiring Jesus Castillo as their industrial relations officer.
If the name sounds familiar, that's because it came up several times during the trial of Danny Mason and his accomplices. Castillo was a public officer who had introduced Mason to Pastor Llewelyn Lucas. Castillo was also allegedly the person who had called and invited Mason to drink at a bar in Belmopan the same evening when Pastor Lucas' head was found in the pan of Mason's pickup truck.
And he's been photographed with Mason previously, and also has ties to former Belmopan area rep, John Saldivar.
So while the PSU has championed transparency and isn't afraid to call out those in authority, are they themselves getting involved in the same sort of shady dealings they fight against?
Here's how Flowers responded:
Dean Flowers, President, PSU
"I will say that we did receive an application for the good gentleman and we did take the application seriously, primarily not only do we believe that he was qualified for consideration but more so, there has been absolutely no allegation by the police department or Ministry of Public Service, absolutely no investigation of wrongdoing of police department or Ministry of Public Service into his conduct or behavior where his association with the former area rep of Belmopan is concerned. Absolutely none, so if he had been investigated or had his name been called, no, we saw a photograph of him posing with a convicted criminal and I'm pretty sure if you look through your archives, you may very well find yourself posing with some people of questionable character. As a football player all my life, I didn't have a choice, there are some people that I might have taken picture with who wanted to take a picture but we don't want to crucify and condemn people simply because they unknowingly associated with a criminal man. So yes, we were contemplating his employment, yes we got blow back from, I wouldn't say, a significant number of our members, I would say that if they were ten comments on the matter, that would be a lot. But in conversations with the good gentleman, he said, I don't want to distract or bring any distractions on the union where the role and responsibility of the union is concerned and I will have to be at the forefront defending public officers and if any public officer will have concerned who I'm associated with in the past I don't want to bring that kind of cloud over the union. So he withdrew his application."
