And in yesterday's House Meeting, the Leader of the Opposition criticized several areas of Briceno's budget. One of the issues he zeroed in on was the "grocery bag" program, and accused the Ministry of playing politics, saying that UDP supporters were left out. However, Minister Balderamos Garcia was quick to correct that today, and added her spin on what's being done for poverty alleviation.
Dolores Balderemos Garcia, Minister of Human Dev, Families
"We try to be as fair as possible, that is my response. And you know, this government is the government that has given what I call the community development fund, I don't know why he should be so obsessed with the issue of grocery because that is not the only thing that the Ministry of Human Development does, and if he is so concerned about grocery and wants to give more and more and more, then he can use his community development fund, with all respect. No disrespect to him, it's all about helping people and I went on record yesterday to say that Hurricane Lisa, we even doubled the amount of groceries that we were giving out and the opposition people have benefitted. I don't know if he wants me to put 500 grocery in his hand but the people of Mesopotamia, Queen Square, wherever it is, Albert Division, they are benefitting and I can say that categorically but we do not want to politicize this thing, we want to give it to the most needy and that is what we have been doing."
