Minister Santi Speaks On $50,000 Mother’S Day Cheer

Santino Castillo

Just before Mother’s Day, the Ministry of Finance gave seventeen U.D.P. Area Representatives eight hundred and fifty-thousand dollars. Those Area Representatives then handed out fifty and hundred dollar bills to select U.D.P. supporters in their constituencies. There are thirty-one political constituencies in Belize…the other fourteen got nothing. Still, for some strange reason the cash giveaway is being dubbed a government program, at least by those area reps who got money. On Tuesday Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse was asked about the political handout scheme. He claimed that it was a Cabinet decision, and distanced himself somewhat by stating that while he may not agree with some decisions in Cabinet, he is first and foremost a team player. Today Caribbean Shores Area Representative Santiago ‘Santino’ Castillo said the exact same thing.

Santino Castillo, Caribbean Shores Area Rep

“I personally had, I have four polling areas, four captains, and each one got a hundred and twenty-five of the cheques and each one submitted a list and the cheques were made in the names of those people and distributed to them. So Caribbean Shores got five hundred mothers got five hundred, one hundred dollar cheques for Mother’s Day from their area representative, being myself.”

Reporter

“Now this is called a government program, yet only the U.D.P. representatives got that amount of money.”

Santino Castillo

“If you will recall when the People’s United Party was in, whatever they did, they did only for the P.U.P.   I, in fact, think this prime minister has set a precedent in that every month they receive a community vote just like we do. They receive money for their office space and whenever the government does its Christmas Cheer, they are included. That they were not included this time, as Minister Hulse said in a previous interview, we are part of a team and whatever the team decides to do, we do that. We are team players.”

We note that in the so-called government program, only U.D.P. represented constituencies received fifty-thousand dollars, and only U.D.P. supporters in those constituencies received handouts.