A fatal road traffic accident claimed the lives of two persons in southern Belize on Sunday. The deadly collision happened in Toledo District near the Jacintoville junction where two vehicles including a pickup truck crashed head-on along the Southern Highway. The massive impact of the collision left Kelvin Selgado and Yofeni Benguche with mortal injuries. According to the driver of the pickup, the vehicle driven by Kelvin Selgado veered into his lane, causing the accident. Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hilberto Romero provided additional details.
“On Sunday, April fourteenth police responded to a fatal road traffic accident at the Jacintoville Bridge in the Toledo District. Upon their arrival, they saw Chevy Equinox vehicle and a Chevy Silverado pickup extensively damaged. Persons were taken to the hospital for treatment. Police made checks at the hospital where Kevin Selgado and Yofani Benguche were pronounced dead. An investigation is being carried out into this fatal RTA. Information is that the Silverado was being driven by Danny Edwards and he reported that whilst crossing the bridge, the other vehicle entered his lane, causing the accident.”
Reporter
“Is there any indication that alcohol, low visibility or vehicle malfunction may have caused it?”
Hilberto Romero
“We do not know at this time. Tests will be done and the investigation will reveal that thereafter.”
Also this past weekend, an accident involving a pickup truck and a motorcycle, took place near mile forty, along the George Price Highway. It claimed the life of Joel Teck who was riding the motorcycle. According to police, the driver of the vehicle lost control and slammed into Teck, causing his fatal injuries.
“Police visited an area near Harmonyville where they saw a Dodge Ram pickup and a motorcycle extensively damaged. Police visited the hospital where Joel Teck was found and he was pronounced dead on arrival. Information was that he was on a motorcycle when he collided with the Dodge Ram pickup. The driver of that pickup was identified as Roy Williams. He has since been arrested and charged for manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct and drove motor vehicle without due care and attention.”
Reporter
“Do you know the circumstances of the accident?”
Hilberto Romero
“The pickup, apparently the driver lost some control and entered the lane and crashed into the motorcycle.”
A police officer has been charged and placed on interdiction after he allegedly shoved his wife out of a moving vehicle over the weekend. Arnoldo Ical and Rosa Bol were traveling along the Southern Highway when they got into an altercation. During the heated argument, Ical reportedly shoved his wife out of the vehicle, causing her injuries.
“On Saturday, April thirteenth, Rosa Bo reported that she had a domestic dispute with her husband, Arnaldo Ical. They got into a vehicle at some point along the highway, Arnaldo Ical pushed her out of the vehicle, after he had punched her in the vehicle. An investigation was carried out and Arnaldo Ical has since been arrested and charged for the crimes of harm and threatening words.”
An application for judicial review of the appointment of an administrator at Saint Francis Xavier Credit Union Limited, filed on behalf of the board of directors and general manager, has been dismissed by the High Court. Earlier today, Justice Martha Alexander handed down a decision in the matter that was lodged in the Senior Courts of Belize in April 2023. Executives of the lending institution have been at odds with the Registrar of Credit Unions since a decision was taken last year to assign a manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of SFXCU. They then sought a declaration from the court that the decision of the Registrar of Credit Unions was unlawful and that the appointment be quashed. In refusing to consider the claimants’ request, Justice Alexander made several determinations, as explained by Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck.
Andrew Marshalleck
Andrew Marshalleck, SC, Attorney-at-law
“As you are aware there was a challenge to the appointment of an administrator by the Registrar of Credit Unions over the St. Francis Xavier Credit Union. That was done because he had expressed the view that given certain administrative and other problems, the stability of the credit union was at risk and he thought that he needed to appoint an administrator to take over management and to put matters right in order to safeguard the interests of members of the credit union. That decision was challenged on a number of bases, most of which failed. The decision this morning, first off, the judge confirmed that Section 61:1 of the credit union act which empowers the registrar to appoint an administrator, does not require that there be liquidity or financial problems before the appointment is made and it’s a, when you think about it, a common sense approach because even before there were liquidity or financial problems the registrar should be able to intervene in order to prevent the liquidity or financial problems. That‘s part of his function, part of his role. So where he sees that things are being managed in such a way that they were headed in a wrong path, he can intervene to set them right. So the section was interpreted by the court to allow for that, that the three separate limbs or bases on which you can, the registrar can intervene to appoint an administrator, the first of which is that there are liquidity problems, second of which are other financial problems and then a third, more general, is administrative or other problems that jeopardizes the stability of the credit union. It was on that third limb that the registrar acted in this case and the court also went on to find that the appointment was reasonable, having regards to the investigative reports, examinations and other correspondents that was before the court, that the registrar was perfectly entitled in those circumstances to invoke Section 61:1 to appoint an administrator.”
According to attorney Marshalleck, of the ten issues that were put forward in the application for judicial review, the claimants were only successful in having quashed a fine of two thousand dollars that was levied against the credit union. The High Court ruled that the decision by the Registrar of Credit Unions to fine SFXCU was ultra vires and illegal.
Andrew Marshalleck, S.C., Attorney-at-law
“In this type of case, an administrator [that] the registrar had seen certain activity and he decided that he would impose an administrative penalty and the ruling in that case, he had imposed a two thousand [dollar] penalty for the failure to provide proof that certain steps he had ordered to be taken, be taken by a particular time. They held that that imposition of that administrative penalty was outside the scope of the act, so the requirements of the section which allows for the imposition of administrative penalties were not satisfied in that instance. Well like any other decision of the High Court it’s subject to appeal. As to whether they will or not, that’s for them, that’s their right to pursue it if they wish. But there were some, by my count, ten issues that were decided and one was decided in their favor, nine went against and I had listed to you the first four. I can quickly give you the others. The court also held that there was no breach of natural justice because the fact of consultation and because the appointment of the board, officers and managers of the credit union was automatically suspended when the administrator was appointed. It’s not that an independent decision was made to relieve the board and these officers of their duties. That was an automatic consequence of the appointment of their administrator and there had been consultation as required by the act the week before the appointment of the administrator was made.”
An attempt by former Port Loyola Area Representative Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez to unseat his successor in that constituency, via recall referendum, has been rejected. In a letter to Martinez from the Office of the Governor General, he was informed that the accepted number of signatures did not meet the requisite thirty percent of registered electors in Port Loyola. Of the four thousand, nine hundred and fifty registered voters, only one thousand, three hundred and eighty-nine signatures were approved. That is the equivalent of a little over twenty-eight percent of the total registered voters. This afternoon, Martinez spoke with reporters ahead of a press conference on Wednesday.
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez, Former Area Representative
“I received this letter, it is dated the twenty-sixth, but I received this letter [on] the twenty-seventh with the details. Also too, I got the details of the breakdown that was given to me for the people whose signatures mismatched. And so, immediately I went to work because, like weh a seh, I maintained and I still maintain, if da fifteen hundred signatures were submitted, the room for error eena dat was just forty-five signatures should be rejected because of the fifteen hundred signatures I procured ninety-seven percent, personally, noh nobody ker wahn paper to you and bring it back to me. I procured that and the journey was long but not hard , and so, from this date here, this letter was copied to the prime minister and Gilroy Usher. But yoh sih weh really happen, I understand everything. Sih, big mouth Mr. Boots neva mek no noise about it, I gaan and get the legal advice from Senior Counsel Barrow and Dickie Bradley as to what is the remedy fi dis.”
Reporter
“Do you feel that you have been done an injustice or these people, the petitioners, have been done an injustice?”
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez
“Do I feel? I know that they have been done an injustice… How yoh mean apart from that? When you sign, you know the last part of this letter from the Chief Elections Officer to the Governor General, remind, under clause two: I also wish to report to you, your Excellency, that it is an offense under section nine of the Elected Representatives Act Revised Edition 2020, for a person to forge a signature on a recall petition or to willingly sign the petition more than once. Soh yoh rub it eena people face.”
According to Martinez, if the Elections and Boundaries Department were unsure of the signatures that were garnered, checks could have been made by the registering officers to validate the signatures that were presented.
Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez, Former Area Representative
“I don’t know if Elections and Boundaries mi believe that at the end of the day that by not following the law, eena my view, that yoh couldn’t challenge what they did. And to date now, we have gotten over a hundred and twenty signed affidavits, by the people who signed the petition. And wah next thing I need to point out, nothing in the law, the title remains the same: signature or sign includes any mark of thumb impression. And nothing in the law stuck, Elections and Boundaries, to verify, nothing in the law even speaks to that the signature must be verified by what you have in record. Yes, I believe that could help tremendously, but the law speaks about verification because you have the capability, you have the registration officer and the registration officer who knows the constituency and knows the people in the constituency. Hell mein, if you figure or you believe that both things under the law, you have a right to protect the people against forgery. If you believe that bwai, Mr. Boots or anybody got people di sign dehn petition and dehn people noh sign, there is penalty for that mein.”
A family claiming that they were denied care at the Northen Region Hospital shared a video on social media that went viral. In the video, the person behind the camera is heard saying that someone was suffering from heart pain and that care was being refused because other patients were being attended to. Under the impression that it was an emergency, the individual also said that the patient was dying because of the pain. The video prompted a release from the Ministry of Health and Wellness condemning any behavior that compromises patient care and safety. Today, Doctor Jorge Polanco was at the Northern Regional Hospital investigating the incident. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
The Ministry of Health and Wellness is investigating reports of patient neglect at the Northern Regional Hospital. One family alleges that a loved one was taken to the hospital for treatment after she began suffering from heart pain. The family member further asserted that healthcare providers at the facility refused to help. Other patients were reportedly pleading with the hospital staff to assist the woman. That did not work, and the woman decided to bring public attention to the incident. Here is the video that she made public.
Voice of: Family Member of Patient
Voice of: Family Member of Patient
“Goodnight everyone, we are in the Orange Hospital and this lady is dying from heart pain after an operation and they don’t want to attend to her. All the patients that are here are pleading for them to help the lady and they simply said they wont attend to her because they have other patients. What do you think of this? The lady is dying of heart pain.”
We spoke with Doctor Jorge Polanco, the Director of Hospital Services, who was at the Northern Regional Hospital today investigating the complaint. Doctor Polanco met with the hospital staff that was on duty at the time. Here is what he told us.
On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco
On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco, Director of Hospital Services, MHW
“She had had a surgery during that day which was considered a minor surgery, minor in that it was even done with local anesthesia. So the surgery was completed and she went home. However around eight o’clock she returned with pain. In reality it was not an issue of the heart, it was from the surgery done earlier before and she was having pain. The issue that she was not attended to was really not as it was depicted in the video. That person was seen at eight-twenty during the night, before the video was taken. She was seen by a nurse and when the nurse reviewed the overall clinical situation, she was told to wait a few minutes and then they would return to her. At the same time, the doctors were dealing with two other emergencies in the trauma room and the nurses was also busy. At eight twenty-four the nurse came out and called for the patient to be evaluated, four minutes afterwards, not knowing the video had been taken. Even the doctors or the nurses knew that video was taken until many minutes afterwards. And, I am claiming this because that is the time when it was recorded in our health information system automatically records the time when the entry was made.”
According to Doctor Polanco, the patient was seen by a doctor and given two injections to alleviate her symptoms. He further stated that the doctor who performed the surgery on her requested an x-ray to be done the following day. He says that the x-ray returned normal.
On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco
“People would post concerns regarding long waiting times at the hospital. We went in depth as to the long waiting times and there is some degree of truth in many cases, however when people would wait long, it is not because they would not have been assessed. Some of those patients who claim they waited long, they would be at the outpatient section, waiting one or two hours, they would then be seen by a medical officer who said you need to go to the emergency room. At that point they would go to the emergency room, and they would be seen but they would be adding all those hours they wait elsewhere. And vice versa it happens, when the outpatient section is flowing with patients they would go to the accident and emergency room, but if the issue is not an emergency, they would be told to wait a few minutes while they finish with the other emergency. So, these are situations that form the context of these complaints regarding waiting times. Also we looked into the communication approach, we empathized to our staff that everybody should be patient centered, everything should revolve around the patient, everything that is done and said it should have some impact on the patient and the patient should be aware as to why he or she would wait, as to why he or she is given a prescription and many times the communication skills are not the best. It is something we are cognizant of, and efforts have been done especially here at the NHR where exposure to training and communication skills has been given.”
One month after the passing of former City Administrator, Stephanie Lindo-Garbutt, the Belize City Council has appointed Albert Vaughan as its new City Administrator. There has been much speculation over the past few weeks about who the council would select to fill this influential position. A release from the council notes that the decision follows the recommendations of the interview committee. It says that Vaughn, “brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having served diligently in various capacities on both the national and municipal levels. Having previously served as a dedicated member of the council for six years, Mister Vaughan is quite familiar with the workings of the city. His experience within the municipal sphere uniquely positions him to understand the challenges and opportunities facing Belize City”. We spoke with Vaughn today about his new role.
Albert Vaughn, Newly Appointed City Administrator
“I am excited to hit the ground running and continue to serve the Belize City Council in my new capacity as the Belize City Administrator. I do believe my experience in the private and public sector really equip me with the insight necessary to tackle the challenges and opportunities that lies ahead. I am certainly ready to collaborate with Mayor Bernard Wagner and the entire council team to deliver on the manifesto promises and meet the needs of our residents in Belize City. I thank the council for having confidence in me. I thank the team that has selected me to do my job and I will do my utmost best to operate to the standard that the mayor and the council desire.”
The municipal elections are history and the projects that the winning city and town councils had campaigned on are expected to be rolled out over the next three years. In Dangriga, one such initiative is already coming to fruition and today, Mayor Robert Mariano shared with us that they’ve been able to construct a bandstand near the seaside that residents will be able to access free of cost, complete with barbeque facilities for family picnics. Mariano says that the location in the Wahima Beach area precedes other infrastructure projects in Dangriga.
Robert Mariano
Robert Mariano, Mayor, Dangriga
“We are building a bandstand and the bandstand is completed. The next phase is to be, to do painting and other decoration, putting electricity and so on. We’re expecting that project to complete by the end of this month. Also we have already started working on the different parks. And so I’m hopeful that by the end of this month, all the parks will be touched as well. Thank you. I went around and did physical checks on our parks and noticed that it is not well painted. Some of the chairs are broken and so on. And so I have directed the personnel in charge of works to ensure that what need to be repaired. And what need to be repainted, let’s repaint them. But we will need to put some brightness in our tongue. And so we’ll be working because we need to make Danger Gang more child friendly. And that is the reason why the next phase. Now is to compete with different parks and then since we are in the dry, we’re also looking at doing some new streets around that regard as well.”
