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PHILIPSBURG:--- Fellow citizens of St. Maarten, as the Christmas holidays draw near, I am certain that many of you, like myself, maybe in full preparations for the season. The Christmas season is a time that we all look forward to. But this years merriments may be somewhat dampened due to the COVID 19 global pandemic as we are confined to some restricted social policies and too many also economic hardship.
During this past year, we have been through some trying times like we have never seen before, and we have not yet seen the end of it Read more

~UPP, PFP, and NA supports the signing of agreement and COHO

 PHILIPSBURG: --- The coalition partners that are supporting the government of St. Maarten give the Prime Minister of St. Maarten its blessings in the form of a verbal declaration to go ahead and sign the COHO law. The leader of the UPP faction was the first to give the Prime Minister the declaration State Secretary Raymond Knops wants when he demanded that she gets such prior to the December 18th meeting.

UPP supports the signing of COHO Law.

After making her position known, the UPP MP and Faction Leader Grisha Heyliger Marten gave the declaration that the State Secretary Raymond Knops is looking for, thereby Heyliger Martin then said I am sure of our Prime Minister of St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament (MP) of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) Claudius Toontje Buncamper on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, posed a number of questions to the Minister of labor, Richard Panneflek, in regards to the number of recent complaints by employees of illegal dismissals taking place by employers Read more

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Parliament, Govt Need To Tackle Prosecutors Abuse.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The board of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) on Monday said it stands behind USP MP and faction leader Claudius Buncamper in calling for a fair trial for his latest fight with the prosecuting authority on St. Maarten and questioned when is St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- On Tuesday, Member of Parliament, (MP) Claudius Buncamper, of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) faction in parliament, sent a letter to Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs addressing the local sub-contractors who were left without payment for works they carried out for MER Sint Maarten B.V., the company contracted by TELEM Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- United St. Maarten Party (USP) Member of Parliament Claudius Toontje Buncamper on Friday fired off a number of questions to Prime Minister, Silveria Jacobs regarding governments failure to appoint new board members to the board of the Social Economic Council (SER) Read more

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~ MP Ottley filed a complaint with the oversight committee, Chairman of Parliament recused himself from the case. ~

PHILIPSBURG: --- The oversight committee that supervises VDSM has issued a decision after a complaint was filed by MP Omar Ottley regarding the screening of candidate Ministers.
The decision which was rendered on Friday states that VDSM does not have any authority to be screening Ministers because Ministers are not listed in the appropriate order in the national decree.
The three-member committee consists of the President of the Joint Court of Justice M.W Scholte, Chairman of the Council of Advice M Read more

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~Say the laws have to be reviewed.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of Parliament of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) Akeem Arrindell and Claudius Toontje Buncamper have expressed words of congratulations to MP Christophe Emmanuel on the victorious outcome of his recent case in which the prosecutors request to the Joint Court of Justice to prosecute him was denied.
The USP MPs feel that Justice has prevailed in this particular case Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- On October 28, 2020 Members of Parliament of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) Akeem Arrindell and Claudius Toontje Buncamper sent a letter via email to the chairman of the Permanent Committee of Kingdom Relations, Mr Read more

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Na Upp Coalition Wants To Abolish Profit And Income Tax

~ plans to implement banking transaction tax.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of TEATT Ludmilla de Weever told parliament on Wednesday that the government is looking into abolishing profit and income tax while implementing a banking transaction tax. De Weever said abolishing profit and income tax will make St. Maarten far more attractive for investors than other islands in the region. The economic affairs minister said that the current taxing system is very burdensome to businesses that are suffering tremendously due to COVID-19 Read more

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My colleagues and the people of St. Maarten a very pleasant good afternoon.
In commemorating October 10, 2010, instinctively as a public servant you start to think about your role. You are de facto part of the government and governing, so you reflect and look ahead from that premise. As public servants, however, there are times when you get so caught up in your bubble of working day and night for your people that occasionally you forget that the best gauge of information about your country is a five-minute discussion with any citizen Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- A report in the daily media of a verdict from the Supreme Court that referred to the Time Share Ordinance of St. Maarten has prompted United St. Maarten Party (USP) Member of Parliament (MP) and faction leader, Claudius Toontje Buncamper to question the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT), the honorable Ludmila de Weever on the exact whereabouts of the ordinance.
In his letter to the Minister, MP Buncamper stated that to this day there is no clear indication where the law is and when it will pass Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- United St Maarten Party (USP) Member of Parliament (MP) Akeem Arrindell met on Monday with representatives of the Mental Health Foundation (MHF)
to discuss the way forward his party wants to undertake to improve the overall welfare of the island.
St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Julian Lake a well-known government civil servant who was arrested as a suspect in the Seabass investigation will spend another 8 days in pretrial detention. Lake was arrested on Tuesday even though the Seabass investigation began in 2019. Seabass investigation has to do with irregularities in the procurement of ICT projects in recent years. This investigation focuses on the Head of ICT for Country Sint Maarten, M.D. M.D. is suspected of abuse of his position in awarding public ICT tenders and of laundering the illegal proceeds Read more

PHILIPSBURG:--- In reply to a letter received from MP Claudius Toontje Buncamper of the USP Faction in parliament, Minister of VROMI, Egbert Doran responded to the various questions posed and suggestions made by the MP.
MP Buncamper, referring in his letter to the property currently being exploited by Rain Forest Adventure (RFA), questioned the Minister on, among other things, the illustrious plans for agriculture/reforestation of the Cul de Sac area and suggested that we take back at least two-thirds of the lands, seeing the need to have land available for agriculture and that the property was acquired for such purposes, including a natural park.
The Minister informed MP Bucamper that there are no known plans for agriculture and that the agreed reforestation program was carried out between July 2017 and May 2018 Read more

PHILIPSBURG:--- On Thursday the USP faction leader in parliament, MP Claudius Toontje Buncamper forwarded a letter to the Minister of TEATT, the honorable Ludmilla de Weever.
MP Buncampers letter to the minister is prompted from the fact that on August 25th, various MPs requested a meeting of parliament with the ministers of TEATT, VSA, and Finance, which never took place.
Unfortunately, the urgency of the said meeting has not been underscored and I have therefore decided to submit my questions to you in writing as time is not on our side Read more

Usp Faction Dispatch Letter To Minister Of Justice On Prison Affairs.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Following last weeks media reports that the Point Blanche Prison Inmates Association expressed its concerns about the health conditions at the institution, United St. Maarten Party (USP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Akeem Arrindell and Claudius Toontje Buncamper sent a letter to Justice Minister Anna Richardson on Monday, requesting clarification on the concerns brought forward by the Inmates Association.
The association, represented by Sjamara Roseburg sounded, what is being referred to as an even louder alarm urging the powers-that-be to get serious about restructuring the prison system or risk facing a situation they will not be able to control Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- United St Maarten Party (USP) Member of Parliament (MP) Claudius Buncamper sent a letter to the Minister of Justice, the honorable Anna Richardson on Thursday recommending the instituting of a tolerance policy on the usage of soft drugs and cannabis plants.
In his letter to the Minister, the MP outlined the uphill battle in dealing with the review and amendments of the laws pertaining to the legalization of the use of soft drugs and the use of medicinal cannabis Read more

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Exclusive: National Recovery Program Bureau (Nrpb) Fired Contractor, Shelters Will Not Be Ready For Impending Storm Or Hurricane.

~NRPB hand-picked condemned contractor for double amount to repair 4 shelters.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- With the possibility of the island having to deal with either a tropical storm or category one hurricane as early as Wednesday St. Maarten will not have its hurricane shelters ready even though the Minister of VROMI announced two weeks ago that these shelters should be ready for the peak of the 2020 hurricane season. The peak season is known to be the end of August thru October of the year.
While the 2020 hurricane season is indeed an active one that begins way before the expected timeframe for the Lesser Antilles, governments, and the NRPB had 3 years to repair the shelters that were damaged since the passing of hurricane IRMA in September 2017 yet in 2020 these shelters are still in a dilapidated condition Read more

Usp Calls Government Negligent, Wants Arrival Protocols Published.

PHILIPSBURG:--- After what it termed "irresponsible decisions" taken by government, the board of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) on Friday called government negligent in safeguarding the safety and health of the people of St. Maarten.

The USP board called the government's decision to not compel a negative PCR test for persons returning on a repatriation flight as the "height of negligence" especially with these travelers being repatriated from Florida, the foremost hotspot for Coronavirus infections in the US.

"Government knows full well that such a decision is tantamount to playing Russian roulette with the health and lives of the population of SXM," the USP board said.

"Anyone who wanted to return home under the current circumstances would have understood if they needed to get the test 3 days prior to travel Read more

Mp Buncamper Proposes That Government Initiate The Selling Of Shares Of Government Owned Companies To Uszv.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament and Faction leader of the USP Claudius Buncamper on Wednesday proposed to the government of St. Maarten that they put in place a Ministerial Decree that would allow the government to sell shares from its government-owned companies in exchange for $100M.
Buncamper agreed with the government of St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Last Tuesday Member of Parliament of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) faction Claudius Buncamper sent a letter to the minister of VROMI (Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure) the honorable Egbert Doran, in which the MP expressed his concerns with the current situation with the land at Emilio Wilson Estate which is currently being exploited by Rain Forest Adventures Read more

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PHILIPSBURG: --- "No governing program or a clear ministerial list of priorities continue to place our country at risk as we go through this pandemic," says Stuart Johnson former Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT).

"Port of St. Maarten and Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) are our biggest assets but fail to meet the needs of our people and our country."

PJIAE's restoration must include US Pre-Clearance and it would be unacceptable if this sitting coalition Government allowed it to be excluded.

In media reports, both the National Alliance and United People's Party endorsed US Pre-Clearance, especially during my tenure Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament and Faction Leader for the United St. Maarten Party MP Buncamper sent a letter to the Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek regarding unemployment benefits. The letter is self-explanatory and is below.

Below is a quote that I literally got and I decided to ask the questions at the source to ensure people get the right answers.

The unemployment benefit doesnt seem to work Read more

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