PHILIPSBURG — “We can only come to consensus if the advice from the Kingdom Council of State is followed,” Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said at a press conference hosted by the National Alliance about the status of the draft consensus kingdom law COHO (Caribbean Entity for Reform and Development). The advice from the Kingdom Council of State points out that the authorities the draft law gives to the COHO are disproportionate and that the draft furthermore triggers questions about its compatibility with the Kingdom Charter. Jacobs and National Alliance faction leader William Marlin explained their position on the issue. “We…
Author: The Publisher
THE HAGUE — An earlier report on dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl about the advice concerning the draft kingdom law Caribbean Reform and Development Entity (COHO) stated incorrectly that the Kingdom Council of State considers the proposal to be a violation of the Kingdom Charter. Instead, the Council merely notes that the draft law triggers questions about its compatibility with the kingdom’s constitutional structure, as established in the Kingdom Charter. Autonomy and own responsibility are important points of departure in this context. The Council of State published its integral advice on its website on March 24. You can find it here: raadvanstate.nl/adviezen/@123232/w04-20-0408. In its…
By Hilbert Haar Reactions in St. Maarten to the negative Council of State-advice about the draft kingdom law COHO were jubilant and that is understandable. But the COHO, the Caribbean Reform and Development Entity, is far from dead, and therefore it is too early to uncork the champagne. Related article: Council of State criticizes COHO draft law, but supports its objectives That the draft law needs some work is clear. The kingdom cannot continue with legislation that, according to its higher advisor, violates the Kingdom Charter. You’d think that this is obvious but weirder things have happened in the past.…
~ Says govt an embarrassment onto itself ~ GREAT BAY — Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel on Tuesday had only four words in response to reports that the Council of State has determined that the COHO is in contravention of the Kingdom Statuut: “I told you so.” He continues: “And I’ve been telling the government and the people of St. Maarten so since November 2020. This government is careless and an embarrassment unto itself.” MP Emmanuel is the only Member of Parliament who has vehemently stated his position against the COHO and the only MP to vote against the…
“The route to the UN via the CLG petition is a way to circumvent the route to the people of St. Maarten for their opinion.” PHILIPSBURG — MP Sarah Wescot is of the opinion that the longer the government pussyfoots around the division in the coalition on the topic of the UN petition, the more detrimental it gets. MP Wescot elaborates: “By now, the Prime Minister should have received the Kingdom Council of State’s advice on the draft COHO kingdom law and while this advice should be treated with confidentiality, I highly doubt that the St. Maarten government and its…
~ Court of First Instance of St. Maarten once again nullified rejection given in an immigration case by the Minister of Justice ~ PHILIPSBURG — On March 15, 2021, the Court of First Instance handed down a decision in which the rejection by the Minister of Justice in an immigration case was nullified. The immigrant in question followed proper procedures to regulate her stay with her Dutch husband in St. Maarten. The case in question is eerily similar to a previous case in which the rejection of an immigrant was also rejected on similar grounds. Seems to be a clear-cut…
PHILIPSBURG — On February 19, 2019, Theo Heyliger, then a member of parliament for the United Democrats party (UD) was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes from construction companies. The Public Prosecutor informed the Minister of Justice that Heyliger was therefore suspended by law as MP, based on article 50 of the Constitution. MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, then President of Parliament, asked Rotsburg Juridische Dienstverlening en Onderzoek (Legal Services and Research) for an analysis of the interpretation of article 50. Prof. Gerhard Hoogers, who teaches constitutional and administrative law at Groningen University put the article under his microscope. Related article: PoP…
PHILIPSBURG — Maybe President of Parliament Rolando Brison is not good at math. Or maybe he just wanted to take a cheap shot at MP Sarah Wescot-Williams for criticizing parliament’s decision to hire the Washington-based law firm Choharis for (at least) $7,000 per month to help out with the doomed decolonization petition to the United Nations. Anyway, in the radio program The Review (see video clip above), Brison claimed that Wescot-Williams had once paid a Dutch law firm over “twenty-something thousand euros” (€2?,000+) for advice about “how to keep (now former) MP Theo Heyliger out of Parliament.” In actuality, the…
By Hilbert Haar If you are not confused enough yet about the whole decolonization petition and what it means for Dutch liquidity support for our cash-strapped government, here is something else to think about. First remember: the United People’s party (UP) and its faction leader Grisha Heyliger-Marten are the driving forces behind that petition to the United Nations. And that petition asks to stop the process towards the establishment of the COHO – the Caribbean Reform and Development Entity. The establishment of the COHO however, is a hard requirement for continued liquidity support. No COHO, no money from the Netherlands.…
Willemstad/Philipsburg – On December 10, 2019, a moratorium was set at Girobank N.V. (Girobank), freezing all credit balances in excess of NAf 10,000 on Girobank’s current and/or savings accounts. A large part of these frozen assets will be paid out by GI-RO Settlement Holding N.V. (GSH) in short term, meaning that the majority of Girobank’s depositors will have free and full access to their funds. This, however, is not the case for depositors with a credit balance of more than NAf 1,200,000. These will be paid out to a maximum of NAf 1,200,000. Withdrawal of the payouts by GSH can…
