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On Monday, 7News broke the story of the legal opinion on the Definitive Agreement that had been swept under the rug. As we told you, back in April, the government's top international attorney, Ben Juratowich, advised them that the contract was unlawful and unenforceable, and basically, good for nothing.
Still, a month later, that same defective DA made it to the desks of the Cabinet members, with a paper urging them to approve the legislation it requires. Ultimately, the Cabinet members rejected it, and the PM then made a show of tearing it up in the House of Representatives.
But if the government knew from April that it was unenforceable, why did they continue to treat it as legitimate a month later in Cabinet?
The media asked the PM about it today, but he danced around the issue.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think what's important, I mean you're flogging a dead horse, the important thing is that the government of Belize, we have decided that the definitive agreement, we've torn it up and we're doing something totally different so you could come with a hundred different opinions, it does not matter. What matters is that we're doing now a new agreement, hopefully a new piece of legislation that will spell out how development of different sizes will be done in the future so that no future developer have to go to any government. They know that if there is this scope of an investment, that this is going to be what you can get as a development concession."
Reporter:
"Portico it uses a lot of land, building land on seabed. Will the government green light this?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"If the government believes that it is an important project, which we do, even Channel 7 believes it is an important project, of course we have to work with them to ensure that they can be able to get access to it, they have not applied, but I am certain that the DPM will give it some serious consideration because without that, we cannot have the project."
But while the PM refused to speak about Juratowich's advice, the UDP is calling for his resignation, saying that he purposely misled the Cabinet and the Belizean people. A press release they issued says, quote, "The Ben Juratowitch Legal Opinion proves that John Briceno defied expert legal advice and submitted the Portico Agreement with full recommendation for Cabinet approval with requisite legislation attached. There can be no reasonable explanation as to why John Briceno did not disclose the damning legal advice to Cabinet and the public given his practice of public condemning other agreements signed during the UDP term that were legally binding having gone through the proper procurement process." End quote.
