Finance Minister hands over
historic budget to Parliament
PHILIPSBURG-- Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy will hand over a historic 2008 draft budget of the Netherlands Antilles to president of Parliament. It will probably be the last budget of the country as the target date for the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles has been set for December 15, 2008.
The Council of Ministers discussed the draft budget on Monday. De Lannooy refused, however, to give any information about the budget. Traditionally the Minister hands over the draft budget at the opening of the new Parliamentary year.
The new Parliamentary year will be opened by Governor Frits Goedgedrag today during a solemn meeting which is scheduled to start at 9:00am.
This year, for the first time ever, Francisca invited all former members of Parliament to the opening. The intention is to sign a protocol of cooperation with all former members of Parliament.
Yesterday president of Parliament Rignaal “Jean” Francisca officially closed the 2006-2007 Parliamentary year. In the public meeting Parliament voted on candidates for president and vice-president for the new Parliamentary year.
The two candidates that will be forwarded for president are Pedro Atacho of the PAR party and Faroe Metry of the PNP party. The two candidates for the position of vice-president are Getmar Caldera of the FOL party and Glen Sulvaran of the PAR party.
The voting was a formality because within the Central Government coalition it has already been decided that the Atacho and Caldera will become respectively president and vice-president. The decree by the Governor making their appointments official will take approximately one week.
After the voting, Francisca, on behalf of the Governor, officially closed the meeting and the 2006-2007 Parliamentary year.
During a press briefing later in the afternoon, Francisca looked back at his period as chairman of Parliament.
He looked back with satisfaction and said that Parliament had to function as independently as possible. Francisca ran for the first time on the MAN slate in the 2006 Parliamentary election. He was number two on the slate and obtained 947 votes.
In the formation process following the election, Francisca was appointed candidate for the position of president of Parliament. However, Francisca, after consulting with his party opted to stay on as director of Selikor, the garbage collection company of Curaçao, till September 2006.
After the opening of the new Parliamentary year in September 2006, Francisca became president of Parliament succeeding Dwigno Puriel. However, in December 2006, the MAN party was ousted from the Central Government coalition.
Coalition members in Parliament repeatedly pressured Francisca to step down, but he refused. “I have been elected democratically and nowhere is it written that the president of Parliament has to step down when there is a new coalition,” he argued.
Francisca pointed out that the past Parliamentary year had focused on the constitutional change process. He noted that during this period the Curaçao Island Council had rejected the November 2, 2006 final statement, afterwards Parliament had approved it, after which the new Executive Council in Curaçao agreed to accept the document followed by approval in the new Island Council.
Francisca played an important role in this Island Council meeting. The July 6 meeting was interrupted by a bomb scare and it was through Francisca’s intervention the Island Council was able to use the Parliament building to conclude their meeting.
Francisca strongly advocates an independent functioning of Parliament and sturdily opposes the rubberstamp mentality whereby Members of Parliament automatically agree with every point of view of the Central Government.
“It shouldn’t make a difference whether you’re in the coalition or in opposition. If you’re a member of coalition and you don’t agree with government you should be allowed to state so.”
Francisca gave a good example last year and voted in favour of the 2007 accord stating that the fact that MAN had been ousted from government was no reason for voting against.
