Philipburg — During recent house searches that were done in the “looting investigation” in the aftermath of hurricane Irma investigators found and confiscated several pieces of jewelry that probably came from a store that sells this specific type of jewelry. The investigators are asking the owner who recognizes this jewelry as theirs to come forward to collect their property and to file an official complaint with the department or they can call 54-22222 ext. 213 and 215 to make an appointment. See photos of jewelry items below.
Author: The Publisher
Cul-de-Sac — On Wednesday, October 1st at approximately 8.50pm the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center received a call of an ongoing armed robbery at Le Grand March in Cul de Sac. According to reports a group of six masked men armed with guns and dressed in dark clothing forced themselves into the establishment. The security guards that were on duty were pistol-whipped to the back of head and threatened with their guns. The culprits then went on to rob the establishment of an unknown amount of cash. During the robbery a shot was fired by one of the robbers however, no-one…
PHILIPSBURG – Gross neglect by the Prime Minister in his capacity of Chief of Disaster Management and a confrontational attitude are two of the arguments in the motion of no confidence the Parliament of St. Maarten passed with an 8 to 6 vote on Thursday afternoon, thereby sending the William Marlin-led government home. The motion nor its result were a surprise to anybody. The new majority in Parliament of eight – United People’s party, Democratic Party and MP Chanel Brownbill – signed the motion and the vote on it was therefore a mere formality. Already before the vote DP-Minister Emil…
By Hilbert Haar So now what? The factions of the United People’s party (UP), Democratic Party (DP) and USp-MP Chanel Brownbill sent the William Marlin government home with a motion of no confidence. No surprise there, but the question is now whether this change of the guard is going to do the people who live in St. Maarten any good. For sure, UP, DP and Brownbill – together good for eight seats, or a slim one-seat majority in the 15-seat Parliament – have taken away the obstacles that stood in the way of obtaining financial aid for the country’s reconstruction…
Pond Island – TelEm Group CEO, Kendall Dupersoy, says the company is well on the way to restoring its telecommunication infrastructure to pre Hurricane status thanks to the continued hard work of technical staff and the addition of local contractors and telecommunication experts from Curacao. According to Mr. Dupersoy, there are now more cell sites (15) in full operation with 10 cell sites providing partial operation. This is a vast improvement on the situation just three weeks ago when the last update was given by the technical team,” said Mr. Dupersoy. Mr. Dupersoy is especially pleased that amongst the cell…
HILVERSUM – Constitutional law professor Arjen van Rijn is critical about the “reluctant attitude” of the Ministry of Home Affairs towards municipalities that refuse to register homeless citizens from St. Maarten, Natasja Gibbs reports on Caribisch Netwerk. Haarlem and Leiden continue to refuse to register people who fled St. Maarten after Hurricane Irma. According to Van Rijn, these municipalities incorrectly maintain that “the status of the refugees from St. Maarten is unclear” and that they prefer to wait for guidelines from the ministry. “Nonsense and unnecessary delaying the situation,” Van Rijn says. “There is already a guideline: the law. The…
By Arjen van Rijn It is a familiar pattern in St. Maarten: the incumbent cabinet loses its majority in the Parliament. Every year it’s the same story. In September 2015 two ship jumpers crossed over to the opposition for inexplicable reasons while Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs was unaware of this, sitting in a plane flying back from New York. The rumor at the time was that this was about financial gain. The new majority wanted to start governing immediately after the crisis of confidence had been formalized. After many controversies an interim-cabinet was established and a year later there were…
The mud-slinging competition between disgruntled politicians is already in full swing and the Parliament has not even passed the motion of no confidence against the Marlin-government yet. It promises to be an interesting time that is ahead of us. With accusations flying to and fro, the average reader will soon be left scratching his head, as it will become near impossible to separate fact from fiction. Under those circumstances, it comes down to who you want to believe; facts be damned. The main players in our political arena have been at this game for decades. They know how it is…
GREAT BAY – Months before Hurricane Irma devastated St. Maarten on September 6, there were already “secret meetings” with at least two Members of Parliament. The Democratic Party was hell-bent on leaving the coalition,” Prime Minister William Marlin said at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. Marlin said that the new majority in parliament is “based on ship jumping” and that his government had prepared legislation to prevent this. “MPs jump ship for personal gain,” Marlin said, adding that the draft legislation would allow ship jumpers to retain all their rights but one: the right to be involved in the…
PHILIPSBURG – “I made fiscal discipline a passion during my tenure,” Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr. said on Wednesday during what could have been his last appearance at the Council of Ministers press briefing. Describing the three stages after Hurricane Irma – relief, recovery and rebuilding – he said that it was necessary to prepare a new 2017 budget, because the current budget is “no longer based on reality.” The minister presented an amended budget to the Council of Ministers that has in the meantime been approved. “It contains additional expenditures; the amount for onderstand (social welfare) has been…
