And while the Gales Point Manatee residents will continue to protest against Vulcan, yesterday, the UDP led an illegal protest against the government. The protest was to voice their concerns on the price of gas, the rising inflation, and corruption.
And while only a few residents came out, the Leader of the Opposition felt that the message got across.
However, the PM isn't too concerned about their protest since he says they're just putting on a show to distract the voters from their own problems. He added, though, that there's only so much the government can do to solve these issues.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"They're grandstanding and trying to move attention away from the deep internal divisions that they have. I think you need to get your house in order before you try to do anything. And it was a fail as far as I'm concerned. A failed protest, but they have the right to protest and that's fine. And we all recognize, they're not saying anything new. They're not being Columbus here or Einstein, we know the issues. That is why today for instance, we are voting the the subsidies for bread, the subsidy for for the bus runs, you know, and these are that are subsidy that we're been doing, we have the subsidy for the
constituency development fund. There are many things that we're doing to try to address those issues. We have cut all the taxes on fuel, but the reality is that we have no control over the cost of the things that come in. Most of the basic foods pay next to zero taxes, so there's not much more to that can be done. I wish I could have a magic wand to make it disappear. What we have to do is to continue to work hard, continue to create more opportunities, create more jobs, create open, help small businesses to prosper. We have the MSME roadshow that will be on that we have asking people to come in. We're going to train you to be able to run a business successfully and in some instances even offer some grant funding. These are things that touch the lives of people, make a fundamental difference. Today we're voting $2 million as a start to develop a thousand lots for the residents of Belize City, that has a direct impact. This is how you create wealth with land when you give it, especially to poor people. We're going to start to put in the infrastructure, it is going to require much more than $2 million. But with $2 million, we can start to be able to provide a thousand lots to the residents of the city where and so it's saved my money."
