Aspiring Area Representatives Promise to Pull Toledo East out of Poverty  

Toledo East Area Representative, Mike Espat passed away on April twenty-second, leaving the seat vacant. And with just two months left before a bye-election is held to fill the post, the People’s United Party’s candidates have set out on the campaign trail with hopes of being elected as the next standard bearer. Doctor Osmond Martinez, current CEO of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment, was the first to express interest in the post; officially launching his candidacy on May thirteenth. He is up against Nicanor Requena, former chairman of the Toledo Association of Tour guides, and Melhem Espat, son of the late area representative, during an upcoming convention. The winner will face UDP candidate Dennis Williams. News Five’s Britney Gordon spoke with two of the candidates to hear what their plans are for the constituency, if elected. Here’s that story.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

With just a few weeks to go before the P.U.P convention is held on June ninth, when a standard bearer for the Toledo East constituency will be elected, aspiring politicians are busy campaigning. Among those running for the post is Nicanor Requena, an active member of the Toledo farmers and tour guide communities.  His campaign seeks to ensure that the needs of Toledo East residents are met, just as much as other constituencies.

 

Nicanor Requena, Area Rep Candidate, Toledo East

“So my name is Nicanor Requena, better known as Nic. I am an educator, I’m a biologist, I am a farmer. I’m a tour guide. First of all, I want to thank the People’s United Party for offering me the platform to be a candidate in the upcoming convention for Toledo East. I believe that the Plan Belize is in action and my goal, my vision is to ensure that Toledo East gets its fair part of Plan Belize, which is already happening. So it is a continuation of Plan Belize and ensuring that those priorities of our people are addressed.”

 

Requena has seen the struggles of the community, and it is the desire to offer aid and support that drives his campaign. He highlighted a need for better infrastructure, healthcare, educational and financial opportunities for youths.

 

Nicanor Requena

“As I go to the communities, people speak about the need for better health care, better education. Better agricultural roads. Better infrastructure in terms of roads to our communities. More opportunities for our youths. Access to land. Our people want access to water. Now in the peak of dry season, a lot of our communities have that difficulty. I also understand from our people that they want better phone service and internet service, particularly in the rural community. In terms of health care, one of the key things that I understand now and I hear from our people is the better need for our hospitals and our health posts, our clinics in the rural communities in particular, to be fully staffed with doctors, nurses and medicine twenty-four seven so that our people do not have to come into Punta Gorda or into Dangriga. So that, that is one of the key things.”

 

Also embarking on his campaign trail is Doctor Osmond Martinez, whose decision to offer himself as a candidate also stems from a desire to fight the economic struggles of the communities.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Area Rep Candidate, Toledo East

“My name is Osmond Martinez I’m the candidate now for running for the convention of the People’s United Party, convention that will take place on June ninth for Toledo East. First and foremost, I have to say coming from a family that was extremely poor, I grew up on houses that were made of thatch like the ones that we’re seeing here. And so when I look at the poverty estimates, it shows that in Belize we’re doing excellent in terms of poverty reduction, unemployment, bringing foreign direct investment into the country. When an analysis was done only for Toledo District it shows that poverty is still a big issue here. It’s actually increasing. We continue to have problem of unemployment in this area. We continue to have problems of investments. So when you look at the foreign direct investment, less than one percent has actually been invested in the Toledo district. And when I look at that, I started to ask why?”

 

Through his experience working with the Ministry of Economic Development, Martinez believes he can help create a development plan that will assist the communities in overcoming poverty.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez

“So when I when I did that analysis, I said, you know what I have to offer myself to help the people of Toledo. to come out from poverty. We continue to have some serious issues here. One of the issues that we have is lands. For example, every Belizean have a right to own a piece of land. The people of Toledo East have a right to own a piece of land access to health, but health system that will be a primary health system. And in Toledo, for example, is where we have one of the weakest aspects in terms of the health. When we look at our hospital, we need to build a new hospital.”

 

Both candidates stress the importance of addressing poverty in the south. As a farmer, Requena empathizes with the struggles that farmers face, such as a lack of accessible roads and the challenge of selling produce. He hopes that by creating more opportunities for farmers, fishers, and youths, the communities will be able to grow economically.

 

Nicanor Requena

“I want to make sure that our farmers are able to have access through farmer’s road, better streets in our communities. I want to also make sure that our farmers are able to sell their produce and get a good price for that. I want to make sure that our youths have opportunities through sports, through education, high school is no longer enough. We need to make sure that our young people, Get a sixth form, get a bachelor’s degree so that they are prepared to contribute positively to the building of our nation. I also believe that our fishermen like our farmers are due an opportunity to create their livelihoods so that they can improve the standards of living so that they can contribute to the building of this nation.”

 

While on the ground meeting with members of the constituency, Martinez and Requena learned about the severity of these issues, further underlining the necessity to address them as quickly as possible. Martinez believes that through the creation of additional jobs, the constituency will transform completely.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez

“These are the things that we need to change. It needs to change and it don’t need to change today or tomorrow. It needs to change from yesterday. We need to fix the roads, the infrastructure roads, not only for the optics of development, but for the optics of increasing the life of people. When you look at our health system in the communities here, there are no doctors here. We have no clinics. And then the distance from one of these villages all the way to Punta Gorda is almost three hours. And sometimes they don’t have transportation. They have to wait for buses. We will definitely put attention a lot of attention and priority in terms of health system, education, infrastructure, tourism and last but not least, which is the most important part is the only way. A country can run, but more important in this case, a constituency like Toledo East, can have a robust transformation, economic transformation is by creating jobs.”

Britney Gordon for News Five.