When Belize City Councilor Eric Chang returned to the country after being accused of having part in facilitating Kim Wong Hong a visa, Love News attempted to obtain a comment from Chang on numerous occasion. We did so to give Chang an opportunity to clear his name but he refused. We spoke to Chang last month but he told us that he would rather not comment and let the allegations fade away. He did, however; sent a correspondent to Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley in which he explained that his extended stay in Taiwan was as a result if his ailing grandfather. Well the news tonight is that Chang, who was demoted from Deputy Mayor with several responsibilities to a councillor with no responsibility, is out of the country, allegedly to Taiwan. Mayor Bradley spoke about it.
DARRELL BRADLEY
“He didn’t get permission to leave; the situation is that since he had returned on the last occasion, we have tried to reintegrate him back into the City Council and it is my responsibility to ensure that he is performing his duties and that he is acting in accordance with his oath of office as a City Councillor and we have been working with him to integrate him back but at the present time, we understand that he is not in the country.”
LOCAL REPORTER
“Would you give us an idea if his departure is on the council’s agenda; will there be a discussion on what his continued absence will mean for the council?”
DARRELL BRADLEY
“We don’t have any standing protocols in relation to leaving; the standard practice has always been that when you go out of the country, you are going to notify the council that you are not here. When I leave Belize, there are certain protocols that have to be put in place, there is an Acting Mayor for Belize City and there are certain things which have to fall in place of finances and things like that. In respect to councilors, they have portfolios and in this case, Eric Chang doesn’t have one; so, that when they leave we must ensure that there is some shadow councilor that can take up their responsibility so that the organization is continuing in relation to him because I wasn’t aware of that; those protocols were not put in place. We don’t want there to be any cloud in our administration, we want to move forward very effectively and tend to the people’s business. It is still my hope that he will make some sort of statement and answer very pertinent questions that some of the members of the public have. We were very much adamant on an agenda of anticorruption and an agenda of good governance; we have promoted certain things in the Council which we believe to our heart and we want to make sure that every member of our organization, staff and councilors adhere to that and so, I continue to nudge him to say clearly because clearly, that you are asking me these questions it is something that is still out there, it is something that is a legacy of him and I don’t want his legacy in office to be, ‘well they said that you were this and that…’; and that was not the case; explain clearly that you were not involved and provide justification so that this matter can be closed once and for all.”
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